Usyk has the tools and skills to beat AJ

Yep - that's a fair point.

In 2 years both fighters will be more seasoned and tested. Can't see this fight going down in 2017 so might have to wait until mid-late 2018 to get this question answered definitively. Hopefully in that time neither will lose badly, get injured or become addicted to cocaine and junk food.

 

North of 168, Usyk is the most talented and skilled active boxer.

 

Shout out to B-Hop.
Usyk is still inexperienced.

 

Miles off.

 

I see where you're coming from, but I think you need to apply some perspective relative to that fight and his subsequent ones. Joshua and Whyte have a history, there was a lot of bad blood from both camps leading up to this fight, and that's exactly what it started out as, a 'fight'. Boxing took a back seat here as they unloaded from the opening bell, the punch count for a HW contest in those opening rounds were ridiculous, so when they started hitting each other to the body they both looked winded and like they were gassing out.

I think what strikes me most about this fight was that Joshua showed a lack of maturity from the starting bell, he abandoned boxing instead looking to take Whyte out. The shot he got clipped with in the 2nd that had him on unsteady legs was a classic case of throwing 'with' the opponent and as we found out, Whyte has a pretty decent chin on him as well as powers of recovery. Joshua doesn't appear to have a great chin, however he recovered quickly and I was fairly impressed with his presence of mind to do what you're supposed to do when you get rocked by a big shot.

After that, I've not seen him make that same error of throwing with the opponent, so a good lesson to learn early and equally impressive that he was able to make adjustments the same round and go back to the jab and using his footwork. At any point if you decide to brawl with your opponent, you're inviting yourself to be clipped. I don't think that version of Joshua exists anymore though, if you watch his fights after Whyte he's a more disciplined fighter, boxing first.

While Uysk may be better skilled than Whyte, I don't for one second envisage Joshua electing to fight a stupid fight against him. His jab sets up his power shots and he has a big physical size, reach and power advantage over him. The problem opponents will have is getting to him in order to test his chin and his jab and improving footwork will make life difficult for any non super heavies.

 

Well said! Usyk has more to prove but this is why we think Usyk can be a threat to Joshua.

 

Lol that fight with Joyce gave me so much hope that he will really move to heavyweight. Usyk looks pretty competitive against Joyce and plus Joyce has a similar body structure with AJ.

 

Understatement, Usyk won convincingly against Joyce who is huge as well as quality. But you know that

 

Yup. I just don't know why some people on this forum think that Usyk is not proven and why he has a lot of supporters.

 

If they were the same size no doubt but he's too small for AJ. Also AJ can punch like hell.

 

How so?

 

joshua > joyce alot in it aswell

 

Usyk is far and away much more skilful than Bernard.

 

If there is a gap, it´s a small one.