{"id":684285,"date":"2026-07-10T13:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/684285\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T13:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:39:08","slug":"longest-reigning-cruiserweight-champion-of-all-time-says-oleksandr-usyk-is-an-average-southpaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/684285\/","title":{"rendered":"Longest reigning cruiserweight champion of all time says Oleksandr Usyk is an &#8216;average southpaw&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/oleksandr-usyk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> is appreciated almost unanimously amongst boxing fans for his remarkable career and elite skill, but there is one former cruiserweight world champion who believes the Ukrainian to be an \u2018average southpaw\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>After claiming the gold medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Usyk excelled as a cruiserweight in the professional ranks, becoming the first four-belt undisputed champion of the division by trumping the likes of Krzysztof Glowacki, Mairis Briedis and Murat Gassiev on away soil.<\/p>\n<p>Usyk then defended the undisputed crown against Tony Bellew before moving up to heavyweight and sensationally <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/features\/5-best-wins-for-oleksandr-usyk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">replicating the feat by dethroning Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury<\/a> \u2013 and also coming out on top in rematches against both men.<\/p>\n<p>Now, as Usyk\u2019s career reaches its final chapter, with a farewell fight currently being discussed, fans are beginning to reflect on his inspirational success.<\/p>\n<p>The longest-reigning cruiserweight champion of all time, Johnny Nelson, seems less impressed, telling the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/XMlfHszXUyI?si=9x0I_yfDlute8BzF\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fight Your Corner<\/a> podcast\u00a0of his opinion that Usyk is and always has been an \u2018average southpaw\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have said, Oleksandr Usyk is an average southpaw. I\u2019m not saying that he is an average fighter, but as a southpaw, his style was average. You get outstanding southpaws that make you think, \u2018wow, you have got it\u2019, Pernell Whittaker, people like \u2018Naz\u2019 [Hameed], outstanding southpaws who use that style to the best of their ability.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t say that he was average, as a southpaw he was average. In regards to when he was fighting Tony, to this day I thought that he [Bellew] was doing really well, I thought that he was ahead on points.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Usyk\u2019s career finale is likely to be a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/cz9lv0g3lpzo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">bout with former WBC heavyweight ruler Deontay Wilder<\/a>, who he has been keen to face in order to complete his hit-list of rival heavyweights in his generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk is appreciated almost unanimously amongst boxing fans for his remarkable career and elite skill, but there&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-684285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684285","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=684285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}