All down to nationality an exposure. He’s beat the best cruiser weights in the world but if they ain’t American it don’t count with you guys. The only division in the world where the best fight each other and he came out on top
Holyfield was tough and could stand and trade. The better comparison is usyk with haye. Although different styles, they have similarities. Similar height and weight, both very fast and mobile. We saw haye dance around valuev similar to what usyk has just done to chisora. Where haye came unstuck was against a 6ft 6, technically sound olympic level fighter in klitschko, with a long reach, solid jab and a dangerous straight right. Usyk is haye and klitschko is Joshua, almost down to a tee. Usyk will come unstuck just the same way.
Many of Pacs wins went north of their division past prime and still had success. You are one of the guys that's been telling us how good lightweight is today. Shot to **** Morales gave Cano a beating, Linares who is apparently one of the best lightweights today got clipped and ended up running into his old buddies Elton John and George Michaels on ***** street. This goes beyond fighter a beats fighter b. Because Cano is around gate keeper level, Morales was out of shape and way past his best, and Linares was in shape and much closer to his prime. Yet Linares did absolutely nothing in the fight apart from his best impersonation of bambi on ice.
A bit off topic but Cano is rather underrated. Cano was only 21 when he lost to Morales, and he lacked experience. Got ****ed over by Paulie. Barely lost to Mosley. Granted Mosley was old as hell, but evidently Moseley still had something left in the tank. Beat Johan Perez, Ashley Theophane, Juan Carlos Abreu, Mauricio Herrera, Ruslan Madiyev and a few others, among them is Linares. Dude always gives it his all and even in defeat, he more often than not puts forth a valiant effort. If Cano can get you to trade with you, it will be a though night for most at 140. And Linares can barely take a good shot at 135. So it´s no wonder someone like Cano could obliterate him.
Yes Cano is underrated and a very big puncher. So you have an issue with Leo being a cherry picker, but have sympathy for Linares who fought from for vacant belts, flew over to UK to fight someone he could beat to have a successful career because he can't take a punch. Leo fought weak opposition, yes but he most definitely didn't have to avoid decent punchers in the lower weight class. Linares is super skilled, but unfortunately he has to avoid even decent punchers with far less skill than himself. This is exactly why I wrote things the way I do. Double standards.
I... don´t think I said anything about Linares besides that he can´t take a punch. Linares did win a BS WBC belt, but he then beat Crolla, who at the time was a legitimate top 10 lightweight. Linares also fought Campbell and Mitchell, who are top notch guys. Campbell has a weak resume, but he has proven himself to be quite capable. Mitchell had turned his career around and was on a good streak. But Linare´s run as a Lightweight titlist was not that good, tbh.
Huh? What a weird bunch of comparisons. Haye didn't move to anywhere near the extent Usyk does, not does Usyk put anywhere near the amount of oomph into his shots as Haye. Haye used head movement and quick twitch reflexes to fight at mid range, exploding in short bursts of punches while taking the rest of the round off; Usyk relies on foot movement to dance about his opponents peppering them with multiple quick mid power blows at an extremely high workrate. Hardly any meaningful similarities at all. Joshua and Wlad are slightly closer, but again there are quite a few key differences. Wlad's footwork and ability to control distance with the jab were impeccable in the Haye fight; Haye's lunging attacks had no answer to closing the distance on him, and when he did he was tied up or thrown to the floor. Joshua has nowhere near that level of craft or ring control. He's much more of an all-round boxer puncher: more variety in his work but more lapses in concentration and less overall commitment to keeping things at range. Usyk will find his punches landing on target. Where he'll come unstuck is in how he reacts to getting hit by one of Joshua's concussive hooks or uppercuts. Joshua's going to be the one coming after Usyk, and if he can rough him up in close then Usyk will be in trouble. If he hangs back and tries to use his height and reach to outbox Usyk he's going to be made to look foolish.
