why are so many people fixated on Fury-Usyk?

"His cruiserweight accomplishments are irrelevant."

Why? Because you said so? Being an undisputed cruiser champ (including beating fighters who have significant results at heavyweight) prior to unifying at heavyweight makes the fight bigger inherently. Haye wasn't even undisputed but being a unified champ before beating Valuev by MD (a much lower calibre titlist than Joshua) made the Wlad fight a superfight. Haye also never even sniffed the P4P list, Usyk is a 2x P4P No.1 and current P4P No.3.

"Andy Ruiz beat Joshua remember?"

Douglas beat Tyson, McCall and Rahman beat Lewis, Byrd beat Vitali, Puritty, Sanders and Brewster beat Wlad.

"Usyk's heavyweight resume is"

I don't see why Witherspoon bears mentioning. Early in Usyk's pro career he beat several fighters who were close to 210 lbs but nobody cares about them. And prior to turning pro he beat six SHW's in the "semi-pro" WSB, including Joyce and Joshua-conquerors Majidov and Nistor.

Chisora (arguably Vitali's best opponent beaten) was not "faded", most thought he beat former titlist Parker in his next fight.

"That's not an impressive resume even by post-Lewis standards."

Another unfounded assertion. If that's true, list the better heavyweight records in the last 20 years. Povetkin's best wins include Whyte and Takam, fighters Joshua was able to outbox and KO. Usyk has more quality wins than Wilder and no losses. He's got better wins than Vitali. He's got better wins than Wlad and no losses, though much less quantity. Usyk's record is way up there.

 

All facts…

 

You ask what makes people think Fury and Usyk will still be the top guys next year? Unless they lose, they are the top 2 guys. As a fan of boxing, I would like to see how Usyk does against the giant that moves with the grace of a ballet dancer.

 

"His cruiserweight accomplishments don't have any bearing on how he rates at heavyweight."

In reality, it does. Usyk was a 1/8 favourite over Chisora in Britain despite only beating Chazz and a couple of other journeymen at pro heavyweight. Why? Because he'd beaten the likes of Joyce, Majidov, Nistor, Hunter, Briedis and Gassiev in semi-pro/pro fights, along with being a star amateur and undefeated since 2009. There was also the historical precent of sub-heavyweights having significant success at heavyweight; Spinks, Holyfield, Moorer and Byrd in particular.

Usyk was already rated as a top 4 heavyweight (and as we've seen since, rightly so) before he'd even had a serious test at pro heavyweight. If anything, Usyk's accomplishments prior to fighting Chisora and Joshua weren't taking seriously enough! Intelligent observers rated Usyk as a better heavyweight than heavyweights with extensive heavyweight CV's, the likes of Povetkin and Whyte for instance.

"Adamek was undisputed cruiserweight champion"

No he wasn't and Adamek was not as highly regarded or decorated as Haye (certainly far less dangerous), who wasn't as highly regarded or decorated as Usyk. Comparing Adamek with Usyk is either Fury-esque trolling or buffoonish desperation.

"P4P is totally subjective and again Usyk appears to be faded and past his best."

Your statement is totally subjective. Rankings in general are hugely subjective, the fact remains that Usyk is commonly regarded as one of the best fighters in the sport in any weight class, even P4P No.1 while competing full time at heavyweight. Beating an undefeated top P4P fighter whose been on the list for at least half a decade is inherently very significant as far as wins go.

"And regardless of how you feel about the Parker fight he officially lost the first fight"

He also officially lost to Helenius. Chisora was not a bad fighter just because he never got the rub of the green from the officials prior to Pulev 2. Chisora gave Vitali and Usyk their 3rd most competitive fights as it stands and his record could just as easily contain wins over Helenius, Whyte and Parker in addition to Scott, Takam and Pulev, with different judges. Usyk did well to beat Chisora with the officials so firmly against him (a strong fan consensus was that Chisora won 3-4 rounds, not 5 and that was with a referee allowing Chisora to foul with impunity).

"Are you going to claim Whyte and Kabayel are as good as Vitali due to matching his supposed top win?"

I never claimed that beating Chisora makes a fighter as good or better than Vitali. But beating Chisora clearly while away from home and not taking significant punishment like Whyte or Parker is still a good win.

 

"At the end of the day"

Irrelevant as both have the best records at heavyweight. Prime is also a vague concept, it's impossible to say who is further past their best, as is the case retrospectively with Holyfield and Tyson, one of the biggest 90's fights regardless.

"No amount of spin can change"

The fact that Usyk has one of the very best heavyweight records in the last 20 years, the GOAT cruiser record and a 2x P4P No.1 record generally.

Lewis and Holyfield had both been beaten and sparked: Lewis by 24-5 crackhead McCall, Holyfield by Bowe x2 and chinny ex-LHW Moorer. That takes the shine off big unification fights significantly. Holyfield was also 37, older than Usyk is now and on the cusp of going 1-1-1 with J. Ruiz. Yet again, it was one of the biggest fights of the 90's.

"I don't think comparisons between Adamek and Usyk are silly"

They are moronic. Grow up.

"beating a guy who lost to the likes of Kabayel a guy nobody rates or even talks about."

Chisora is far from the only fighter to have a bad loss (and we don't even know how bad because we're almost 6 years removed from it and Kabayel is 23-0), it doesn't discredit his good performances. One fight after Usyk he dropped Parker and most on Eyeonthering and Boxrec had Chisora winning the fight. So while it's not a brilliant win, it's a solid win and on par with Vitali's best.

 

I’m not lol just let the clown Fury continue his circus and Usyk can fight his mandatories in Hrgovic and the winner of Joyce/Zhang 2, then potentially wilder and retire happily…

 

It will never live up to its hype after letting it simmer for over a year

bog standard fury beats up a midget who retires afterwards

 

"does not a great resume make"

Usyk was regarded as the 4th best heavyweight before he'd even fought Chisora because the whole record is taken into consideration when assessing the quality of a fighter, even if that doesn't make sense in your mind. Usyk's record, even just considering the pro heavyweight wins, is better than the records of Vitali, Joshua and Wilder because he's beaten more quality and is undefeated.

"maybe not even Hunter over Bakole"

The Hunter who Usyk beat more easily than he did Joshua on either occasion.

You're equating the wins of Usyk over Joshua with Hunter over Bakole (best win either decisioning Yoka or a close/controversial win over Kuzmin).

Equating Usyk with Adamek...

You're not serious. Bye.

 

Because for both Fury and Usyk the other guy is the best opponent they didn’t fight yet. And the fight would be for undisputed. So enough reason.

 

Because it's a historic fight. Usyk's resume and accomplishments become insane the more you read into them, and while Fury has stains, he is a colossal slickster with ring IQ and enough charisma to ignite the promotional campaigns.