Who could offer better resistance and hurt Usyk more? Dubois or Hrgovic.

Absolutely not, he bangs him out in 5.

 

DuBois would have to try to get Usyk to do something stupid in the first few rounds and clip him. I've yet to see Usyk do anything remotely that stupid.

Hrgovic would need to jab 'n grab and drain Usyk the way vintage 2010 Wald would. Honestly? I'm skeptical even the Wlad of that era could pull it off and the Hrgovic we saw against McKean is just nowhere near capable of doing that.

People need to stop thinking that Usyk is weak. He may not be an explosive puncher but both Gassiev and Joshua have learned that you can't really push him around in the ring.

 

Hrgovic is much better than Dubois in every way, and overall I think better than Joshua. He can beat Usyk by using his size and jab alone, IF he is in top form.

 

There are Croatian taxi drivers that have better stamina than Hrgovic.
He'd be a sitting duck for Usyk, and I'm not using the word duck in the Fury sense of the word.

 

Daniel Dubois remains a huge question mark.

After he lost to Joyce, I basically wrote him off completely. I was never too high on the guy, anyway,

But you can't ignore the fact that he tore his ACL against Lerena nine months ago. We've seen guys tear an ACL in fights, and not only do they rarely finish the fight (because they keep going down), they also rarely, if ever, WIN (which Dubois did).

I have a warm spot in my heart for fighters that overcome significant injuries in fights and come back to win. I'd much rather root for them than "front-runners" who quit when things start going bad for them.

When this fight with Usyk was signed, there was a question if Dubois would even be fit enough to go. But it looks like he's entering the fight with no issues.

So I don't expect we'll see Usyk blowing him out early. Usyk hasn't knocked down anyone at heavyweight yet. So, as long as Dubois is in there, he'll have a puncher's chance.

It would certainly upend the division if Usyk got bowled over by Dubois.

And, if Dubois wins, fans in the future will probably wonder why we didn't all see it coming ... given Usyk is a big, 25-year-old, power-punching heavyweight and Usyk is a 36-year-old boxer with even fewer pro fights than Dubois.

So, despite my initial complaining, I'll definitely be watching. Should be a fascinating watch.

In answer to the original question, Hrgovic would probably present Usyk with more problems. Nobody has dominated Hrgovic yet. He has a vast amateur background himself. He's seen every style.

McKean was holding so badly during the fight Saturday that during large portions of most rounds, McKean had both gloves holding onto the ropes to pin Hrgovic back. Not only that, when the ref tried to break them, McKean often wouldn't let go of the ropes and had to be pulled off of Hrgovic.

I've seen guys warned for just reaching out and grabbing the top rope during a fight. I can't recall a guy holding on to the top rope with both hands and refusing to let go - round after round after round. It was completely ridiculous and illegal, yet the ref did nothing about it. So the fight just turned into a boring wrestling match.

How he wasn't warned and penalized as early as the first or second rounds, I have no idea.

As soon as there was a moment when McKean wasn't grabbing and holding, Hrgovic finished him off.

Hrgovic is the bigger stylistic threat.

 

Neither but Dubois has better technique in my opinion.