{"id":698204,"date":"2026-07-18T09:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T09:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/698204\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T09:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T09:48:08","slug":"oleksandr-usyk-admits-there-is-one-heavyweight-he-wouldnt-beat-he-would-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/698204\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk admits there is one heavyweight he wouldn’t beat: “He would win”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> backs himself against the vast majority of heavyweights, past and present, yet there was one man who he admits would have beaten him by split decision.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old is now approaching his final fight but, based on his accolades and performances, it must be said that he has earned his place in the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

He has, after all, become a three-time, two-division undisputed champion and cemented himself as the greatest heavyweight of this generation, boasting two respective wins over Tyson Fury<\/a>, Anthony Joshua<\/a> and Daniel Dubois<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And now, it seems, Usyk is attempting to bookend this heavyweight era by securing a clash with former WBC champion Deontay Wilder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But while there is no denying his dominance in recent years, the Ukrainian is happy to concede that, in previous eras, his unbeaten record would have been in serious jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Against a prime Muhammad Ali<\/a>, for instance, Usyk would likely meet his match when it comes to ring IQ, toughness and a dogged desire to win.<\/p>\n

But still, the masterful southpaw tells FightHype<\/a> that, even against the \u2018Greatest\u2019, he would only lose by a razor-thin verdict.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be hard fight \u2013 12 rounds, maybe 15 rounds. I wouldn\u2019t win, Muhammad Ali would win. Split decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Objectively, it must be said that Ali\u2019s signature wins outshine those of Usyk, given that Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Ken Norton became Hall of Famers themselves.<\/p>\n

A selection of fans may also highlight Usyk\u2019s performance against Rico Verhoeven<\/a>, who came surprisingly close to pulling off a major upset in May.<\/p>\n

Then again, it seems unfair to fully critique the performance of a man who admits to being one fight away from retirement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk backs himself against the vast majority of heavyweights, past and present, yet there was one man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-698204","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\/698204","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=698204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}