Right now I would go with Ward based on his achievements in two divisions and the overall level of opposition. However, Usyk is very close to having a better career and another win or two against the top heavyweight will cause me to rethink my opinion.
Jesus wept! Usyk and it's not close, both amateur and pro. Ward wouldn't dare do once what Usyk does virtually everytime he fights and without his stacked to high heaven deck and his filthy dirty tactics he wouldn't have achieved half of what he did. Usyk is the polar opposite of Ward and in the best possible way.
This isn’t accurate at all. The quality was higher at cruiser more than 168 an a Kov that had a drink problem at 175. Usyk clearly has had the better career, not a hometown fighter either, a road warrior
This is the same poster that made this marvel of a thread https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/two-things-can-be-equally-true.674329/#post-21287961
This. I also agree that for now I’d have to go with Ward, since his competition at 168 was much better than Usyk’s at cruiserweight, but If Usyk goes on to win the rematch with Joshua and beats the winner of Fury-Wilder and becomes the undisputed heavyweight champ Usyk’s career would definitely trump Ward’s.
Right now I'd say Ward, ever so slightly. His opposition was a little bit stronger. At their natural weight class I'd say the level of opposition was similar with slight advantage to Usyk. But Kovalev is definitely better than Joshua. Although by the 2nd fight Kovalev was already into an alcoholic fueled decline. Either way they are close. And it got me thinking that with the recent retirements of Ward and Pac, that Usyk is now the only no brainer active ATG. You could make a case for Gonzalez and Kovalev being ATGs. But they arent slam dunks like Usyk is.
On paper they're close but when you actually dissect the wins then Usyk is the clear winner. Usyks cruiserweight run is greater than Wards 168 run no question. I've always found that era of 168 to be overhyped on this forum. You can make a case for Kovalev being greater than AJ as Kovalev was the clear #1 at LHW and I wouldn't argue against it but the jump from Cruiserweight to HW is a much more impressive task to me and is historically much more significant.
