30 Comments
Sep 26, 2021Liked by Dan Rafael

I was a huge Usyk skeptic. But no longer. He’s legit. AJ reminds me of Oscar De la Hoya. Uber talented and charismatic. But always seemingly uncomfortable during their biggest fights. AJ needs an Emanuel Steward type of Guru to unlock his still immense potential. Maybe a Buddy McGirt or Joe Goosen could bring something new. Either way, I’m not ready to give up on AJ. Even if nothing changes outside of the ring, going into an Usyk rematch.

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Right , those are the advantages Joshua had and he failed to use them. He boxed the boxer instead of going into a seek and destroy mode to the body which would have slowed Usyk and opened up the head. Hearn just signed Joshua to a lifetime contract so the fights are going to be there , Joshua has to make up his mind to use his strengths not to play to his opponents strengths. He has the talent it's about his mental state whether he will continue to succeed.

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Bad tactics from Joshua imo - he was never gonna outbox Usyk.

That said, Usyk was brilliant and maybe even more aggressive tactics from Joshua wouldn't have worked.

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Great performance from Usyk. Dan I’ve been reading you since ‘04 when I first moved out of my parents and the hockey lockout made room for lots of classic boxing on TV. Right around Hopkins vs De La Hoya. Joshua Fury has definitely lost its aura but AJ challenging the undisputed champ as the challenger would still sell out any stadium in the UK. If he invokes the rematch clause we will really see if he’s going to be able to learn from losses as well as Lennox Lewis and Wlad Klitschko or if he’s plateau’d. Usyk has to be number 2 P4P. Canelo and he are the only ones that have dared to be great and won. Inoue 3, Crawford and Spence can fight over number 4 and 5 since they won’t fight each other.

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Usyk looked like a schooled and trained high level pro boxer. AJ looked vulnerable as he always has. A natural athlete, but not a great boxer, with not a great chin.

I don’t see Usyk fairing as well against Tyson Fury. Thoughts?

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Great fight, Usyk won convincingly, i don't see a re-match being that different.

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Thought it was a really good contest. Result wasn't a shock as I genuinely thought it was 50/50 beforehand.

Neither were at their best. What seemed to be telling was the first decent left hand Usyk landed within the first minute or so: Joshua appeared a bit gun shy after that, which dictated the course of the rest of the fight.

Joshua needs a break - a proper one. For all the talking heads stating he'll go straight into the rematch again, not one of them said 'let's see how he's feeling in a couple of weeks and then listen to what HE decides.' Joshua gave a brief post-fight press conference where he talked about 'everything was going well for 8 rounds.' So I can only respectfully assume he was a bit concussed. The pressure on Joshua [for which of course he's very well paid] must be immense. A change of scene and team could do him the power of good.

Usyk is sublime and a joy to watch.

Was it just my imagination or did the final bell ring early? Need to watch it back but have been struggling with wifi issues all day and Dazn needs a fair amount of bandwidth!

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AJ seems to be his own

worse enemy. First he gives up his one major advantage his size by coming in rail thin and almost as light as Usyk , just paws instead of powering his jab and practically ignores the body where his presumed greater power would have done damage to Usyk. Usyk barely got by Derek Chisora a man who has been beaten by quite a few heavyweights because Chisora while deficient in skill set did use his true heavyweight size throughout . People are going to lionize Usyk but while he is skillful and capable he is not a true heavy and will be beaten by a few that I can think of relatively easily. By KO.

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