Has reigning heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk done enough to go down as one of the heavyweight greats? Most fans will likely answer yes to this question, yet one respected analyst who has been around the sport for years does question Usyk\u2019s heavyweight resume\u2014at least he questions it somewhat.<\/p>\n
Kellerman Fires a Shot at Usyk\u2019s Legacy<\/p>\n
Max Kellerman, speaking on Inside The Ring, said that while Usyk deserves to go down as a pound-for-pound great of the sport \u2013 this, of course, due to all the work Usyk did when boxing as a cruiserweight, unifying the four belts, taking fights on the road, ducking nobody \u2013 he hasn\u2019t done enough good stuff at heavyweight. At least not compared to Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield, and some other heavyweight kings.<\/p>\n
Kellerman points out that Usyk, though he holds big wins over Tyson Fury (twice) and Anthony Joshua (also twice), has not beaten too many top 10 contenders. Kellerman\u2019s point is that Ali, for example, took on each and every worthy top 10-ranked heavyweight contender, and Ali beat them. Usyk needs to turn back the challenge of a few more heavyweight contenders, in Kellerman\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n
The \u201cThin Resume\u201d Debate Begins<\/p>\n
\u201cUsyk has become overrated as a heavyweight champion, historically, and underrated as a pound-for-pound guy, historically,\u201d Kellerman said. \u201cBut as a heavyweight, the resume, while it\u2019s excellent at the top, it\u2019s a little thin. He hasn\u2019t beat top 10 heavyweights, something like that. Even for Usyk\u2019s place in history, when looking back at the resume, he got Fury twice, he got Joshua twice, Parker will be one of those guys where even if they fight and Usyk wins\u2026we bring up Joseph Parker to buttress Anthony Joshua\u2019s resume. When you look at guys like Ali, it\u2019s not just that he beat Frazier and Foreman and Liston and Norton. He beat Jerry Quarry, Oscar Bonavena, Ron Lyle, Earnie Shavers, Henry Cooper, and Doug Jones. He beat so many top fighters. Evander Holyfield, the same thing\u2026.It makes a difference, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, do you agree with Kellerman here? Does Usyk need to do more to go down as a great, not pound-for-pound, but as a heavyweight great in particular? Usyk may not have made too many defences against top-10 contenders, but then again, is there anyone Usyk has ducked? You could say Parker and Agit Kabayel, but give Usyk time; he may well accommodate these two next year.<\/p>\n
Can Usyk Still Bulk Up His Legacy?<\/p>\n
Usyk has said he plans to fight until he turns 41. In his remaining time in the ring, Usyk may fatten that heavyweight resume. But again, does he need to do so in your opinion?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Has reigning heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk done enough to go down as one of the heavyweight greats? Most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-217726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}