Usyk to have a better heavyweight resume than fury

His resume is what I really wanted to bring into the discussion here, yeah he’s beat his opponents, but just look it his best career wins, Wladimir Klitchko was a couple of months short of his 40th birthday and a trio of wins against wilder who is generally regarded as a fairly poor boxer who is just blessed with god given heavy hands. So on his entire resume he’s beaten 2 world champions. Only 2, I find that fact fairly incredible.

Steve Cunningham doesn’t count as fury was fighting bloated cruiserweights at that point
 
Fury would likely beat AJ and Usyk. However, it seems like he doesn't want to risk it.

His resume is poor, especially if you believe Wilder is massively overrated. The issue with Wilder is his best win is against Ortiz who himself has beaten absolutely nobody.
 
What I don’t get is how Fury constantly gets away with not having to fight his mandatory challenger. If the sanctioning bodies were serious about making the best fights they would get Fury, Usyk, Joshua, Dubois, Zhang and Wilder in a room and tell them all that they need to fight each other over the next 2/3 years.

It’s the same in the other divisions mind.
 
Only if Usyk won the first fight I assume? Why shouldn’t that be the case? Under no circumstance should somebody challenging for every belt in a division be entitled to a 70% grab!

So yeah, not really a dealbreaker is it


I didn’t say it shouldn’t be the case, I’m just pointing out for balance there were other demands on usyks part

but anyone knows fury will decline that if you put in 70/30 for the rematch
 
Fury isn't a particularly pleasant chap in my opinion (neither is Joshua mind) but lets be honest, he would dance rings around Joshua and pose much more of a challenge for Usyk. I'd hope Usyk beats him, but who knows.
 
No real quality in depth to make even that an achievable goal but fury had legacy in his grasp and he appears he would rather wash his hands of it. If a boxer presents a credible challenge to another and that man declines it but remains active then it can be considered a loss in my opinion. That said, who can usyk defeat to best furys record? Dubois isnt up to much at all. Its boring now anyway, HW scene is a pantomime and its out season
This is the best heavyweight devision in terms of strength in depth since the days of Ali, Frasier and Foreman. The politics and finances have unfortunately changed massively since then. That's why the fights aren't happening.
 
This is the best heavyweight devision in terms of strength in depth since the days of Ali, Frasier and Foreman. The politics and finances have unfortunately changed massively since then. That's why the fights aren't happening.
It absolutely 1100% isnt. Its not even close. When we were in the 90s we reminisced about the 70s and felt cheated. In fact the 90s ran the 70s pretty close for quality.

Top 70s HWs

Ali
Frazier
Foreman
Norton
Lyle
Quarry
Shavers

Top 90s

Tyson
Lewis
Holyfield
Bowe
Morrison
Mercer
Tua
Foreman (again)

Now
Usyk
Fury
Wilder
Joshua
Joyce
Dubois
Zhang
Parker
Whyte

The 90s actually run 70s quite close if you take it as a top 10/12 from each decade, the superstar presence of Ali and to a lesser extent frazier and foreman skews it a bit. Not sure which decade larry made most title defences in but i always consider him in the 80s group. The level now actually runs the 80s close for the wooden spoon and you can say the bookmark champs of holmes early 80s and tyson late 80s can clinch that eras claim to third place. Clearly some fighters straddle decades but broadly speaking this eras have been the most inactive and the top 5 have fought each other the least. So no, this eras are absolutely not the best since the 70s but you are right about the farcical politics in boxing. It needed a huge overhaul in its administration and point scoring in order to continue. Needs an effective commission, unifying (ironic eh) the world sanctioning bodies, use of AI in an overhauled scoring system and some way of making the big fights happen wjen they should not five years too late
 
It absolutely 1100% isnt. Its not even close. When we were in the 90s we reminisced about the 70s and felt cheated. In fact the 90s ran the 70s pretty close for quality.

Top 70s HWs

Ali
Frazier
Foreman
Norton
Lyle
Quarry
Shavers

Top 90s

Tyson
Lewis
Holyfield
Bowe
Morrison
Mercer
Tua
Foreman (again)

Now
Usyk
Fury
Wilder
Joshua
Joyce
Dubois
Zhang
Parker
Whyte

The 90s actually run 70s quite close if you take it as a top 10/12 from each decade, the superstar presence of Ali and to a lesser extent frazier and foreman skews it a bit. Not sure which decade larry made most title defences in but i always consider him in the 80s group. The level now actually runs the 80s close for the wooden spoon and you can say the bookmark champs of holmes early 80s and tyson late 80s can clinch that eras claim to third place. Clearly some fighters straddle decades but broadly speaking this eras have been the most inactive and the top 5 have fought each other the least. So no, this eras are absolutely not the best since the 70s but you are right about the farcical politics in boxing. It needed a huge overhaul in its administration and point scoring in order to continue. Needs an effective commission, unifying (ironic eh) the world sanctioning bodies, use of AI in an overhauled scoring system and some way of making the big fights happen wjen they should not five years too late
I'd put usyk, Joshua ( In his prime) and definitely fury up against the top 3 in the 90s and would expect them to win. This is the thing with heavyweight boxing though. We all see it through rose tinted glasses. Don't forget the 90s ended 23 years ago and we've never had a division like this since
 
This is the best heavyweight devision in terms of strength in depth since the days of Ali, Frasier and Foreman. The politics and finances have unfortunately changed massively since then. That's why the fights aren't happening.
This division is poorer than when haye and klitchskos were around
 
I'd put usyk, Joshua ( In his prime) and definitely fury up against the top 3 in the 90s and would expect them to win. This is the thing with heavyweight boxing though. We all see it through rose tinted glasses. Don't forget the 90s ended 23 years ago and we've never had a division like this since
So usyk joshua and fury against say lewis tyson and holyfield. Ill even give you a non prime tyson. Clean sweep cor the 90s and no offence intended but you are really exposing your ignorance on the division. You can bring bowe on as a sub for tyson and its still a clean sweep. Even if the current Crop all fought each other they still wouldnt have ever mixed it with the 90s standard. Ray mercer would obliterate joshua on his best day. The more i think about it, the more its a cup game for the 90s - they would be able to rest all Their top guys.
 
Not true at all. The fact thar they haven't met each other makes it a poor division. The standard of the boxers are as good as anything since the 70s
There is 2 elite boxers in the division in fury and usyk

Joshua looked elite, until he faced and elite boxer and then he looked ordinary when compared to an elite boxer
 
I have not seen Usyk put many super heavyweights on the floor yet mind. Matter of time before a big lad, with better bottle than Joshua hits him.
 
They are all avoiding each other. It's stupid. Heavyweight boxing isn't half of what it should be.
Yup, there's far too much avoiding these days, and not enough big fights.

Fury, Usky, Joshua and Wilder should have all fought each other by now, this has been going on for 5 years and we're no further forward. We should now be onto second fights between these now etc.

Fury's only fought Wilder
Usyk's only fought AJ
AJ's only fought Usyk
Wilder's only fought Fury

They've all fought plenty in the next level down, when they could have been fighting the bigger-name guys, and now they're all passed their prime. It's like stopping the World Cup at the quarter-finals each year.

They need to get rid of all these rematch clauses, as they end up getting in the way and wrecking the divisions. No rematches till you've fought the top 5.

They also need to take the negotiation away from the boxers, just split it 50/50 every time, if you're big enough you get a big payday and if you stay big enough, you get lots of them. Challengers might get one payday and be done for, fair enough.

Easy for me to say not fighting these massive 18 stone blokes mind.
 
No way a non belt holder should get a 50% split against reigning champion but i agree there should be a more structured split system but boxing just doesnt work that way. Maybe a standard 60/40 to the champion, any rematch clause has to be based on a return bout in 90 days or less. Non title bouts could be split to be incentivised so its 40/40 and last 20 to the winner. Im thinking of joshua v Franklin recent fight where franklin looked content just to see the final bell. I might be talking rubbish there tbf
 
No way a non belt holder should get a 50% split against reigning champion but i agree there should be a more structured split system but boxing just doesnt work that way. Maybe a standard 60/40 to the champion, any rematch clause has to be based on a return bout in 90 days or less. Non title bouts could be split to be incentivised so its 40/40 and last 20 to the winner. Im thinking of joshua v Franklin recent fight where franklin looked content just to see the final bell. I might be talking rubbish there tbf
Thing is the reigning champion would have got a 50% split from when he won too.

Overall the biggest fighters and champions would still get a massive majority of the money, but it just completely cuts out the "negotiation" which is clearly used as a too to doge fights, and they all do it.

Sure, the current champions and top fighters would never go for this idea, but upcoming fighters and future champions probably would.

They need to do something like this to distribute the money better too, it's a similar problem to football.

33% each and then 33% more to the winner, for all fights might even be better. Or 30% each, 30% winner and 10% split over the top 100.
 
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