{"id":746693,"date":"2026-08-23T01:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T01:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/746693\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T01:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T01:04:12","slug":"shakur-stevenson-names-the-american-heavyweight-who-would-have-beaten-usyk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/746693\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson names the American heavyweight who would have beaten Usyk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shakur Stevenson<\/a> considers Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> to be one of the most \u201cskilful\u201d heavyweights of all time, only to come off second best in a compelling fantasy showdown.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old seems on the verge of retirement but, even now, is widely regarded as the top dog and most accomplished fighter of his division.<\/p>\n

Having already cemented his Hall of Fame status, the Ukrainian is a two-division undisputed king and has firmly established himself as the greatest heavyweight of this era.<\/p>\n

In particular, his two respective victories over Tyson Fury<\/a> and Anthony Joshua<\/a> offer a fair reflection of Usyk\u2019s heavyweight success, while a pair of stoppages against Daniel Dubois only enhance his legacy.<\/p>\n

It could be argued, however, that Usyk, despite remaining unbeaten and completing every available challenge, has not been afforded the level of opposition that Muhammad Ali<\/a>, for instance, was used to facing on a consistent basis.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Greatest\u2019 did, after all, amass victories over future Hall of Famers such as Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Sonny Liston and Ken Norton.<\/p>\n

Even his 1977 points victory over Earnie Shavers<\/a>, who never held a world title but was one of the all-time hardest punchers<\/a>, should be considered a phenomenal achievement.<\/p>\n

Stevenson has therefore told Daily Mail Boxing<\/a> that he favours a prime Ali against Usyk, who, while an elite technician, would be the first to admit that he is not quite on the American icon\u2019s level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the hardest fight [to call], just because they\u2019re both so skilful. But, for me, I gotta go Ali.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming off a subpar performance against Rico Verhoeven<\/a>, who he nonetheless stopped in round 11, Usyk is now plotting his final fight before sailing into the sunset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson considers Oleksandr Usyk to be one of the most \u201cskilful\u201d heavyweights of all time, only to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-746693","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\/746693","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=746693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}