For reigning heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk, the plaudits keep rolling in from most people. But while we fans find ourselves agreeing with (or maybe not, as the case may be), people like Adam Smith, Spencer Oliver, Gareth A. Davis, Carl Froch, and so many others who say the skilled Ukrainian now has to be looked at as a legit, no questions asked all-time great of the sport, one man strongly disagrees.
Former champ turned pundit Tim Bradley is having none of it as far as Usyk, who unified first the cruiserweight division and then the heavyweight division, being an all-timer.
Speaking on social media, Bradley said, “Y’all need to stop with that,” as far as showering Usyk with all-time great status.
“First of all, I’m not even going to talk about the [Usyk-Fury II] fight right now, but this all-time great [stuff] that’s going on…..All-time great? Are you kidding me?” Bradley said. “Man, look. Just because he beat the two best heavyweights [Anthony Joshua and Fury] does not make him an all-time great. Usyk is not an all-time great. You’ll need to stop with that. He’s literally had seven fights (as a heavyweight). I understand that he has accolades. He cleaned out the division at cruiserweight, and I get that. Now, he comes to heavyweight. I wouldn’t say he cleaned it out, but he beat the two best guys in the division.”
This does seem like a strange take from Bradley, a man who usually makes a whole lot of sense. For starters, Bradley arguing that Usyk does not deserve all-time great status because he has had a mere seven fights at the heavyweight level perhaps misses the point. The fact that Usyk has achieved as much as he has after just seven fights is really quite remarkable. Unified heavyweight king after just six fights; how is that not impressive? As for Usyk not having cleaned out the heavyweight division, who has he ducked or dodged?
At a push, a critic could say Usyk must face and defeat Daniel Dubois in a rematch, this to forever silence that whole “Usyk was KO’d by a legit body shot last August” talk, that or he must fight and defeat Joseph Parker should Parker topple Dubois in February. But that aside, who else must Usyk face as a heavyweight to prove his credentials?
And we cannot forget Usyk’s amazing achievements at an amateur level, or of course, as Bradley points out, Usyk’s accomplishments as a cruiserweight. Simply put, what more does a fighter, any fighter, have to do these days to prove his greatness? Usyk has been called a generational talent; he has beaten two much bigger, heavier, and more powerful men, Joshua and Fury (and ask yourself this: can anyone other than Usyk defeat Tyson Fury? Fury is, for some people, an all-time heavyweight great himself), and Usyk has displayed some truly astonishing things in the ring. And one more thing, Usyk has beaten practically every man he has faced in their backyard, with Usyk never getting the chance to box a big fight in his troubled homeland.
Usyk may now retire, or he may stick around at heavyweight before dropping back down to cruiserweight. But what else can Usyk do to make harsh critics like Bradley agree he is indeed an all-time great?
Do YOU have the answer?
Usyk, at 22-0(14) has beaten:
- Poland’s Krzysztof Glowacki in Poland, winning the WBO cruiserweight title
- Latvia’s Mairis Briedis in Latvia, winning the WBC cruiserweight title
- Russia’s Murat Gassiev in Russia, winning the WBA and IBF cruiserweight titles
- The UK’s Anthony Joshua in the UK, winning the WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles (twice)
- The UK’s Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia, winning the WBC heavyweight title (twice).
Usyk also won the World Boxing Super Series tournament as a cruiserweight, while as an amateur, he went a remarkable 335-15, winning European gold, gold at the World Championships, and Olympic gold.
Yet still, for some people, this does not justify all-time great status.
