AJ in 8 by TKO. Usyk struggled to avoid getting hit by Chisora, he would need a significant improvement in his defence not to get hurt by AJ who is stronger, faster and more skilled than Chisora. I know Usyk has bulked, and that might help keep AJ from pressing as hard as chisora tried, but if AJ puts any sort of pressure like that then Usyk will be in big trouble.
AJs problems will come if he is too passive, lets Usyk get into his rhythm early before putting any damage on him,
I never liked fighters bulking up too much, so I’ll be interested in seeing how Usyk looks. If you’re the smaller man, no matter how much you bulk up, you’re still going to be the smaller man but probably detrimental to your advantages. That said, Usyk is a top level fighter with a great team, so I’m sure they know more than me. It’s just history usually tells us bulking up to match an opponent never works out too well.
I still don’t think the Chisora fight has any significance to this. If AJ tried applying that sort of pressure, he would be gassed in 3. Chisora has been a pressure fighter all his life and knows how to use that style.
I think stylistically, Usyk would prefer an AJ fight any day. A fairly rigid upright fighter who will try to jab with you. That’s always going to be favourable to a boxer like Usyk, as opposed to being swarmed by a lump like Chisora.
Another point worth noting is AJ has sometimes struggled to get to grips with smaller fighters. The Takam performance wasn’t great. Parker gave him some angles and movement and AJ didn’t have much of an idea on how to set up his work. Even with Povetkin early on, but he was old.
The Parker fight is the one worth looking at, he’s arguably the only opponent that used real movement v AJ and AJ couldn’t land anything significant. Couldn’t set up his work. Well Usyk is much better than Parker with angles and movement, better feet. Another thing is he is a southpaw.
The more I look at the fight and think about these things and get away from the small man v big man scenario, which I don’t think will be a huge factor as I explained in my earlier posts , the more I think Usyk is a really bad style for AJ.
No outcome would shock me at all, I’ve just got this feeling that Usyk beats him and by stoppage somewhere around the 9th.