By: Sean Crose
It may not seem like much, the great Oleksandr Usyk taking on an apparently over the hill Deontay Wilder. But it’s a fight heavyweight titlist Usyk wants none the less. “I want fight with Deontay Wilder,” Usyk told Boxing King Media. “For me I think its interesting.” While most may not agree Usyk sees Wilder as a legit great of his era and wants the opportunity to defeat the man who may well be the hardest puncher in boxing history. “He’s a world champion guy,” Ukraine’s Usyk said in broken English. “He’s a very famous guy. He’s a strong guy…he’s one of the great heavyweights in the last ten years.
The truth is that Usyk is right. People have a tendency to write Wilder off because he doesn’t have the most slick skill set. Here’s the thing though, the guy may well be the single hardest puncher boxing has ever seen. Make no mistake about it, when a prime Wilder would drop an opponent it was a scary experience to watch. The fact that Tyson Fury was able to get up before the count of 10 in his first fight with Wilder is a credit to just how tough Fury is. Even Fury himself went on to mention just how hard Wilder can hit. That’s the thing with boxing, it only takes a single shot.
And nobody can land a single shot quite like Wilder. That’s why a fight between the Alabaman and Usyk is still interesting because no matter how good Usyk is – and he’s quite good indeed – it’s hard to imagine him taking one of Wilder shots. He’s smaller than Fury after all. Yet Usyk is arguably one of the greatest heavyweights in boxing history. That means he’s said to be on the general level of Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis. Few if any analysts said the same about Wilder in his prime.
It’s easy to see how Usyk views Wilder as being one of his own peers, however. Not all that long ago at the dawn of the post Klitschko era, the heavyweight division seemed to come down to super-sized fighters. Fury was one, Wilder was another, and Anthony Joshua was the third. Usyk has beaten two of those men on two occasions. The only one missing… is Wilder. And although Usyk no doubt knows that’ll be given the edge as far as predictions go should a fight with Wilder become a reality, he also knows that power is the last thing to go on a fighter and to get caught by the likes of Wilder is one of the worst things that could happen to a heavyweight.
Usyk should win this fight of course. But you can’t write Wilder off. That’s something that not only Usyk knows but keen fight fans know as well.