Oleksandr Usyk has now left Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois, and Tyson Fury in his wake, with fans around the world quick to label the undefeated Ukrainian as an ‘all-time great’ after his latest masterclass.
However, not everyone agrees with that assessment, with former two-weight world champion Timothy Bradley Jr launching a passionate rant as to why undefeated icon cannot be considered as one of the all-time greatest heavyweights.
Former two-weight champion argues Usyk isn’t an all-time great
From Juan Manuel Marquez to Manny Pacquiao, former light welterweight and welterweight champion Timothy Bradley Jr knows exactly what it takes to beat the best; and also, to be considered one of the best to have ever laced up the gloves.
Yet whilst the wider boxing community celebrates Oleksandr Usyk as one of the greatest heavyweights in combat sports history, Bradley believes that the Ukrainian simply hasn’t done enough to merit that title.
“I just got done watching the fight and I’ve been seeing all these comments everywhere… All of this all-time great s***, all-time great – Are you kidding me?!” Bradley stated via his YouTube channel.
“Recency bias: just because he beat the two best heavyweights of this era, does not make him an all-time great, Usyk, he is not an all-time great and y’all need to stop all that.
“He literally has seven fights, he’s fought five guys in the heavyweight division – I can understand that he’s got accolades and cleaned out the division at cruiserweight, I get that, and yeah, he beat the two best guys in the division – and now you’re saying he’s an all-time great? Come on man.”
Bradley was keen to acknowledge that Oleksandr Usyk is one of, if not, the greatest cruiserweight in history – but with only a handful of fights in the blue-ribbon division, he doesn’t meet the requirements compared to other heavyweight legends.
“Stop it. He’s a legend in his own right, but all-time great, y’all tripping… I’m not hating, I’m giving you guys the facts man; five fighters in the heavyweight division and you guys are talking about [Usyk being] an all-time great… Stop it. Lennox Lewis put in all that work; Mike Tyson put in all that work…Y’all a lot smarter than that.”
Timothy Bradley Jr explains why Usyk is a ‘professional amateur’ boxer
Oleksandr Usyk defeated Tyson Fury via a unanimous decision 116-112 on all three of the judges’ scorecards – whilst Bradley admits that the Ukrainian did win the contest, he certainly doesn’t agree with the wide margin.
“Usyk won the fight, but the fight was close – hella close. It wasn’t by a landslide, six-seven-point difference, that fight was hella close and Tyson Fury, he showed up and showed out… Usyk took the last two rounds but before that man, it was back-and-forth. One round Fury, one round Usyk – lot of close rounds and at eight, it was even.
“Usyk is basic, basic, fundamental boxing – he is a professional amateur boxer, point-fighting. He is fantastic at it, he ain’t trying to hurt you, he’s just trying to beat you – that’s it. He’s excellent, but he’s basic.”
Regarding ‘The Gypsy King’, and Bradley let his feelings known at what he described to be a ‘terrible’ gameplan of fighting behind a long guard, especially after coming in far too heavy to implement such a movement-heavy strategy.
“I hate that long-guard [of Fury], that long-guard was terrible, leaving all kinds of lanes open to Usyk… The gameplan was suspect from Tyson Fury, super suspect – he did damn well but [his strategy] was suspect.”
“He needed quicker hands, quicker feet, Fury didn’t need power – what Fury needed was speed, he needed to drop some weight and get lighter. His reaction time was slow, transition time was slow, and Usyk was making him pay.”
Whilst Usyk is likely going to move on, or rather backward in order to silence Daniel Dubois for a second time, the former champion wouldn’t complain if a trilogy bout was made later down the line.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing this fight again, it’s going to be close every single time – I don’t care what the scorecard says, Usyk barely edged this fight out [and] that’s straight up facts.”