With an endorsement from the man who’s carried the mythical title for the past few years, undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk has elevated to boxing’s pound-for-pound king.
Thanks to his scintillating split-division victory over previously unbeaten WBC champion Tyson Fury Saturday in Saudi Arabia, Usyk (22-0) has now worn undisputed crowns at cruiserweight and heavyweight – the latter coming by rallying on the scorecards and knocking down a champion 40 pounds heavier.
“That’s a misnomer that a heavyweight can’t be in the pound-for-pound (conversation),” ProBox TV analyst and former 140-pound champion Chris Algieri said on Monday’s episode of “Deep Waters.”
At heavyweight, “you can be so much bigger than your opponents. You can use those (weight- and size-advantage) assets to overpower someone else’s skillset. But Usyk’s not that guy. He’s got the skills to pay the bills, man.
“He’s smaller, but he fights heavier guys. He should go up spots (in the pound-for-pound rankings) being at heavyweight because it only takes one punch (to end a bout). It’s not like fighting at 122 pounds.”
The last portion of the comment was intended to separate Usyk from Japan’s unbeaten and undisputed super-bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue, who has sat atop the various mythical pound-for-pound rankings with Crawford while piling up titles in four weight classes and being undisputed twice, like Crawford and now Usyk.
“This is the only weight class where you do have such a weight disparity,” former welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi said on “Deep Waters.” (Usyk’s) a smaller guy beating bigger guys, which is why the pound-for-pound list was created in the first place.”
Usyk previously twice defeated former two-time three-belt heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Crawford heaped lofty praise on Usyk on X after the bout, in which Usyk rallied from a 68-65 deficit on two scorecards after seven rounds and battered Fury in the eighth before knocking him down with a ninth-round barrage of “20 unanswered punches,” according to “Deep Waters” analyst and Hall of Fame inductee Timothy Bradley Jr.
“I put him at No. 1, absolutely,” Bradley said. “What he was asked to accomplish that night was a fantastic performance. You had Tyson Fury with all the advantages – the experience in the heavyweight division, the weight, the reach. And Usyk was able to overcome all of that. It was that commitment to his game plan, his commitment to the body, the fact he fights at a high-revving pace. Fury couldn’t keep up.
“Usyk finding that shot, standing still and trading with Tyson Fury, catching him in that sequence when he hurt him in the ninth round … Usyk hit this guy 20 times unanswered.
“Everyone’s giving the referee a hard time over the knockdown (being called too late), but if he called it (earlier), it would’ve given Fury a chance to relax. (Usyk) hit him with 20 unanswered punches!”
Bradley, a close friend of Crawford’s, said, “I love Terence Crawford, but he’s been too inactive. I love Inoue. But this right here, becoming undisputed at cruiserweight and then going up to heavyweight and beating a guy who had never been beaten in Tyson Fury.
“It’s unbelievable.”
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