From, say, 1970s HWs onwards. Where are you ranking Usyk currently. And where will he rank were he to beat Fury next year and retire?
Hard to say but if he beats AJ again then Fury and someone like Joyce inbetween. He'll be top 10 ATG P4P.
I don't know. Probably somewhere in the top 10, it's hard for me to rank HW boxers as so many of them have comparable resumes.
At heavyweight? It's a bit early to have him in discussions as a great at heavyweight alone as all he's done is beat Joshua once, even Andy Ruiz has matched that feat. If he wins the rematch and beats Fury then we can start talking about him as a great heavyweight.
Needs to get a couple of wins Doesn't even need to beat Fury, if he can survive 12 rounds and make it close and get a rematch, that's good enough. AJ still won't be a pushover in the rematch, as long as AJ doesn't lose his head.
Needs more wins to be Top 20, HW is actually quite shallow so if he can get a few more wins he can pull it off
Would you have him currently just below K2 all-time? You think he could jump Vitali for example with Joshua 2 and Fury?
Vitali is very skilled but doesn't really have any notable wins. If Usyk beats Fury that win alone would definitely put him in the conversation with Vitali
I think currently that's too high, but Furys resume is also nothing special tbh. If they ever fight it would definitely settle things
How about AJ? It's hard to rank AJ over Usyk all time after being shutout. Even with an aging Wlad and Povetkin on the resume. I mean, resumes are only part of the equation - it's so subjective.
If we are basing our answer strictly on the heavyweight part of his career then OU would not be top ten. Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Holmes, Tyson, Holyfield, Bowe, Lewis, both Klitschkos and Fury would be ahead of him for sure. This is not to say Usyk wouldn't beat some of them. I'm just saying that based on three heavyweight fights he has not achieved enough to be ranked ahead of these guys on the all-time list.