{"id":761116,"date":"2026-06-26T07:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T07:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/761116\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T07:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T07:53:10","slug":"former-heavyweight-champion-who-defeated-muhammad-ali-says-he-wouldve-beaten-usyk-id-take-all-of-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/761116\/","title":{"rendered":"Former heavyweight champion who defeated Muhammad Ali says he would’ve beaten Usyk: “I’d take all of them”"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Hall of Fame inductee has given one specific reason for why none of this era\u2019s top heavyweights, including Oleksandr Usyk<\/a>, Tyson Fury<\/a> and Anthony Joshua<\/a>, would have defeated him in his prime.<\/p>\n

Usyk is the current king of the heavyweight division, holding the IBF, WBA and WBC titles, with Daniel Dubois currently in possession of the WBO belt.<\/a><\/p>\n

The likes of Fury and Joshua have previously reigned as long-term champions in the division, but is is another man that ruled for several years that has made the claim about the current generation.<\/p>\n

Larry Holmes<\/a> is regarded as one of the greatest heavyweights in history, known for his punishing jab and dominant surge between 1978 and 1985.<\/p>\n

During this seven-year period, Holmes made 19 successful world title defences against the likes of Ken Norton and Earnie Shavers, while controversially claiming a 10th-round stoppage over a faded version of Muhammad Ali<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The American was then relieved of his IBF title after suffering back-to-back points defeats to Michael Spinks, before a prime \u2018Iron\u2019 Mike Tyson stopped him in round four of their 1988 encounter.<\/p>\n

During his separate reigns as world champion, though, Holmes doubts that any modern heavyweight could have lived with him over 15 rounds.<\/p>\n

This includes current unified and lineal champion Usyk, who has proven a master of the 12-frame distance but will never complete a sanctioned 15-rounder.<\/p>\n

Speaking with CanadaCasino<\/a>, Holmes said his \u201cdetermination\u201d and \u201cwillpower\u201d would have been too much even for the masterful Ukrainian.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think today\u2019s fighters have the heart of the guys from the 70s and 80s. We had determination and willpower to go out there for 15 rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s fighters could never have done 15 rounds. I believe I would have beat them all. I was always ready. Every fight was like the last serious one.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Holmes has expressed his view on the matter, there is no way of knowing how the likes of Usyk, Fury and Joshua would fare over 15 rounds.<\/p>\n

It could be argued, however, that, in a prime-for-prime battle with Usyk, there is no guarantee of a Holmes victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Hall of Fame inductee has given one specific reason for why none of this era\u2019s top heavyweights,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-761116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}