Usyk is on the downside

I tend to agree. I didn't think he looked that great. He had a lot of wasted movement in the early rounds. He seemed to be throwing a lot of arm punches. He didn't take the body punches well at all. He was such a sucker for a right uppercut that, at one point, Joshua just kept throwing it over and over even when he was out of position.

Usyk seemed to drop way off in this fight. Joshua was just awful, though. He doesn't seem to be able to take a punch anymore.

Hrgovic and Zhang, who fought on the undercard, probably would've stopped Joshua with the hard shots they were throwing.

I think Fury pounds Usyk with body shots and takes out Usyk with that right uppercut he starched Whyte with.

At this point, I don't even know who Joshua beats anymore. He turned into Tony Yoka. Bakole might stretch Joshua, too. He doesn't seem to have the mental toughness to do this anymore

 

No one is mentioning the important factor of the smaller ring. AJ was able to mount more consistent pressure without as much exertion because Usyk didn't have as much space to move into. AJ also threw significantly fewer punches but a much higher proportion of power punches, especially to the body. He was more retrained, looking to counter with power rather than win every second of the round with his jab, which reduced the opportunities that Usyk had to counter. So AJ's gameplan was better than the first time, in addition to the smaller ring and the fact that AJ knew the judges were biased in his favour, which enabled him to conserve even more energy.

I thought Usyk looked virtually identical to how he did in the first fight (which immediately gave me great confidence that he would win) and in my opinion this was an even more dominant performance, under more adverse circumstances (ring size, political and geopolitical factors).

 

Fury didn't take a single clean shot to the head over 18 minutes (minus rabbit punches) from a guy that took AJ to war for 7 rounds when he was very green relative to AJ.

 

He was somewhat winded after the 9th round tonight because AJ landed 4 or 5 big shots to his body.

Then Usyk came off his stool before the 10th and bashed AJ around like an unwanted stepchild.

 

Fighting same size or smaller men as he did at cruiser doesn't take as much out of the tank as fighting a 6'6, 82 inch reach, 245 lbs athletic power punching behemoth who is applying pressure, whacking you to the body and the balls, putting his weight on you in the clinch and looking to take your head off with right hands and left hooks. Usyk has to be even more active in terms of movement and feints against a fighter like this, which is another strain on the engine. He also can't throw as much against such a fighter due to the threat of the counter, he has to pick his spots more.

The size of the ring is another factor. To my eye this was a smaller than average ring, which gave AJ another relative cardio boost (along with the biased scorecards). Usyk is also 10 lbs heavier than he was at cruiser (which he packed on to compete with the behemoths in the clinch and give him a bit more pop) so that is another factor to consider. If Usyk's engine has declined it's a very mild decline; he was extremely active in this fight, more than he was in the first actually.

 

He looked good. AJ was also really good tonight so it was close

 

probable true on Usyk
but Fury has decline even more probable. legs not what they were

yes for both of them is time to make the fight

 

I think AJ's body work had something to do with Usyk's stamina issues.

 

High performance of Usyk was only due to the fact that Joshua gased out in 9th round trying to knockout Usyk. The last 2 rounds make a lot of people think that Usyk dominated the fight, while it wasn’t the case.

Joshua was much better with blocking this fight.

 

Short Round is an example of someone who is biased by fan-aticism re: Usyk...
But he laos shows some excellent analyses & is overwhelmingly correct here!
IF Usyk showed decline in cardio it was marginal.
Not that we can even tell-the heat. Smaller ring. A huge draining opponent landing body shots.
Yes being heavier for the last couple of fights even if mostly muscle takes a toll.
But he is likely about the ideal size for his opponents.

What possible relative weaknesses that can be exploited-& everyone has them-is that he can be hurt by body punches, + while Joshua is not elusive, Usyk landed 24%.
Still a great performance.
But if he say got that up to 33% he not only wins more rounds, but is at least a little less tired from missing.

 

Have folk forgotten where they thought last night, it was very hot, I was particularly impressed that AJ kept it together.

 

Usyk is probably 80% his prime now. Still whooping everyone in this divison.

 

I said after the first few rounds that Usyk looked to move less and a little slower than before.
He was right in front of AJ too much.
Feel him snd Fury both are declining and need to fight next.

 

To be honest I do thing it was unbearably hot in their so they might looked a little bit off same with zhang and hrovic

 

I agree with this to an extent, but one also has to factor in that AJ managed to work his body more than anyone (aside from Briedies maybe, and AJ deffo hits harder) else has managed to do, including a good few low blows - I'm actually astonished that Usyk's cardio was as good as it was.

This was a better AJ than the 1st fight, but it was also a better Usyk as well in terms of making adjustments and negating any success AJ had very quickly after it, so looking at that way, whilst he must logically be in decline, I personally don't think there is actually that much evidence of it.

Now if it's another 18 months before they can get Fury / Usyk arranged, will the decline be that much more observable? That's a very real possibility, but then again Fury is not that far behind Usyk in age and has had a trilogy of very hard fights with Wilder to put the miles on his clock!