Hope you don't mind me taking Briedis out. Many observers still consider him to be Usyk's toughest fight, period, and his record of wins over Huck, Glowacki, Dorticos, Charr, Perez, Durodola, Mann, Mikaeljan (if a bit dodgy) is outstanding. Not sure how anyone would vote against him. But who was #2? Gassiev Bellew Glowacki Huck Hunter Mchunu Any criteria you like...record....resume....titles held...heavyweight success...whatever.
For the record I think Gassiev too, but find Bellew to be an acceptable answer because of the Haye wins, and even Hunter because of his heavyweight success.
It's probably Gassiev but I think he was a tad overrated personally and I think Briedis would've beaten him convincingly had they met. I quite like Usyk's win over Glowacki he was coming off a FOTY candidate vs Huck and had a solid win over Cunningham. I think top 3 without Briedis are.... 1. Gassiev 2. Bellew 3. Glowacki
I'll say something else for Glowacki...whereas Usyk won every round of their fight, you could tell by the look on his face and his body language that he was not exactly having a relaxing coming-out party. Glowacki seemed incapable of doing anything that would translate into points, but he was doing what he could and giving Uysk a long night in some sense. Actually, I will say two things for him, because he fought until the last minute, going right at Usyk, ineffectively but valiantly, in the 12th. At the end of the day, hard fights and Covid left him a shell of what he was.
I voted Hunter to begin with, but considering these fights and when they actually took place, I think Gassiev is the best answer The difference between Usyk's cruiserweight run and heavyweight run is that fans/scholars have to dig a little into each major cruiserweight Usyk beat, and when and why this win was impressive. His heavyweight wins meanwhile speak for themselves
Gassiev followed by Hunter I don't see a case for Bellew. Take nothing away from Usyk but Bellew was well past it at this point.
Regardless of how his career at HW panned out, Gassiev might actually be a better win than Briedis, considering the circumctances at the time. Sounds crazy that Gassiev entered the Usyk fight as the slight betting favourite, but his wrecking of Dorticos might be more impressive than any single performance(in a winning effort) of Briedis'.
Bellew was 35, that is younger than Usyk is today. He looked comfortable at cruiserweight and had 10 fights winning streak, including some respectable names like Makabu and Haye. For me it's not out of the question that maybe Bellew could have handled Gassiev at that point.
I actually think he looked the best he has in that last fight since the Usyk fight. First time in a VERY long time he stopped someone with that hook to the body. He wasn't even throwing it though most of his heavyweight run. He's 31 years old. All he has to do is grind his way to a title shot, and throw a hook like that at the right time...
