Roy Jones Jr has been speaking on the greatness of Oleksandr Usyk.
Jones Jr is an American boxing great himself, whose reflexes and unorthodox style saw him become a world champion in four weight classes and dominate the 1990s from middleweight to heavyweight.
Usyk has not fought in as many different divisions, but truly dominated cruiserweight as undisputed champion before moving up and becoming a two-time undisputed heavyweight ruler with two victories over each of Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois.
Speaking to Seconds Out, Jones Jr explained why he has Usyk as one of the best heavyweights to ever do it.
“He dominated a very highly classified cruiserweight division when it was at its height, then he came up and dominated heavyweight after that. So to say you won’t put him up against the greats would be crazy. I’m not saying he’s an Ali type, I mean not saying he was big enough to beat the Earnie Shavers of the world and all that, cause we haven’t seen him get hit like that.
“But the guys he fought who had the power, he did very well against. It would have been good to see him back in the day with the guys who had the wits with the power. Nowadays, they either got the wits or the power, very rarely do you get both together. I would definitely rank him amongst the top 10, maybe the top 5.”
If Usyk is to fight on, he will have mandatories to deal with, including WBO challenger Joseph Parker and the veteran Derek Chisora for the IBF, a man he has already beaten.