why was Usyk so inactive from 2019 to 2023

Covid a bicep injury and a war in his home country.

 

It was just a whole lot of unfortunate circumstances contained in that period of time. First, It was Covid. The whole situation seems like a thing of the past now, and we've all practically moved on, but we've forgotten that we could barely even go outside the house back then. Hence Usyk merely having 1 fight in 2020 and 1 in 2021.

Then the whole Russia-Ukraine mess happened, hence only 1 fight in 2022. After the second AJ fight, Usyk just wanted to get in the ring with Fury and get done with it, but we know that just wouldn't happen. Usyk's inactivity is strictly on him there though, he shouldn't have been a whole year out of the ring just because he wanted Fury, and ending up merely fighting Dubois. He should have fought 1-2 more guys than that after AJ 2, it was just a poor choice on his and his team's behalf. It didn't even have to be someone really risky, just something to keep himself fresh and active, like Wallin or Helenius. I'm really scared that a combination of his inactivity and age would cost him the Fury fight, if it ends up happening. Hope that's not the case.

 

Steroids.

 

Usyk is a superb cruiserweight but not a natural heavyweight . Too soft on the body , too weak on the punch .

His managenent tries everything they can to cover up his ducking of fighters he would loose and instead find the biggest bums available to keep him winning also in hw .

Since the bums are limited in amount he fights very rarely . Thats the story .

 

In that time from new player in the division he become number 1/2. Beat Joshua who was top 2 twice and defend his titlles with mandatory chalanger.

Inactive? Maybe but he done more than others in whole career.

 

It helps immensely - IF YOU'RE ONLY GOING TO BE FIGHTING ONCE A YEAR - when you are named the #1 contender before you even have a fight in a division, which Usyk was.

Usyk petitioned the WBO, and they dropped Dillian Whyte from the top spot and put Usyk in his place before he even signed to fight Chazz Witherspoon.

If Usyk didn't get that rating, like Gassiev DIDN'T, and he was fighting ONCE a year, like Gassiev did, and was trying to work his way into a title shot, Usyk would still be working his way up.

Beating Chazz Witherspoon and beating 13-losses Derek Chisora doesn't typically get a guy a title shot.

 

Usyk is not really different than any of the heavyweights who've been a champion during this time frame. It's just a sad time at the top of the division for heavyweight boxing fans.

Since January 2019

Anthony Joshua - 7 fights

Tyson Fury - 6 fights

Andy Ruiz - 5 fights

Deontay Wilder - 5 fights

Oleksandr Usyk - 5 fights

 

WBO and WBC federation got rule that If You are champion of the world in some division You automatically get a chance to fight with Champion from weigh above You.
Not sure if it work in all division but for sure in cruser case.
Usyk can force Hw champions already before because he was cruserweight champion with all belts.
He dont use it but he can.

Its actually good that they dont forced him to go thru all this fight to get titlle fight. He show that was not needed.

 

Agreed, I don't blame him for everything up to the Fury negotiations, but he can't be absolved from all blame this year.

I do think WBA, Warren, and Usyk himself should shoulder some blame for Dubois fight not happening until August.

Warren got the WBA to order the Dubois mandatory, well by rights the WBA was up next which is fair enough. But then Warren got it delayed because of Dubois' injury in the Lerena fight, whereas other Orgs would just move on to the next contender. To make matters worse Team Usyk pushed the fight back further to align with Ukrainian independence day...

At the end of the day, Usyk holds three belts, with that comes a financial boon, but you have to defend the bloody things. I really don't like how they have signed up to undisputed in a fight they have no intention of resolving this year, just so Usyk doesn't have to get in the ring and fight his mandatories.

Even Holyfield would be embarrassed by this level of inactivity. It seems that among unified heavyweight champions, Usyk is the most inactive in history.

I did have sympathy for him. But enough is enough. If his plan is to sit on the belts until undisputed he should be stripped.

 

It's almost as if that guy has been living under a rock all this time. Or just fricking uneducated....

 

Add a couple of fights that fell through.

 

They all fight so infrequently because they are getting paid too much.

If promoters paid them less and paid them what they were actually worth then guaranteed they would be fighting more often.

Hearn commented on this issue last week and is preparing to drop fighters from his stable who aren’t earning their due. Or those refusing higher risk fights because they are too comfortable earning good money for low risk fights.