Mikey Tapology Boxing Corner!

Alright folks, 

As you might know I'm Tapology Boxing editor. I know the majority of you guys are here for MMA, so was I originally. But for the last year or 2 there is a little more interest in Boxing on the site. 

So here's a place to talk boxing. 

This thread is gonna be amazing, thanks for creating it @Mikey1903! It'll be great to learn more about the sweet science and hopefully it will help generate some more interest in the boxing events on here!

I guess I'll start things off with the big boxing news. Last night former Unified Cruiserweight Champ Oleksandr Usyk came to London, England and defeated WBA, WBO and IBF World Heavyweight Champion Anthony Joshua. 

I thought Usyk could do it, although I was worried about the power but mainly the judges! Didn't think Usyk would get a decision in a Football Stadium full of 70,000 fans against 1 of the biggest, if not the biggest cash cow in boxing! Money talks in boxing as does promotion unfortunately.
Happily tho there was no robbery in London last night (unless you're named Sonni Martinez and you whooped up on Ricky Hatton son! But that's another story).
In what, I thought, was a great fight. Oleksandr Usyk took Anthony Joshua apart. From the very beginning Usyk landed hard straight lefts and used his excellent footwork to keep Joshua turning and befuddled practically all night. Credit to Joshua because after losing the 1st 4 Rounds in my eyes, he made some adjustments started throwing with less power, which helped him land. Going to the body was a nice adjustment too. I thought Joshua evened the fight up by the 8th. Then Usyk done what great Champions do, he made better adjustments and he took over the Championship rounds. By round 10 Joshua was breathing hard and his eye was swollen bad, Usyk picked up a bad cut which bled into his eye so he was compromised too. In the 12th round Usyk started really hammering Joshua and without a slightly suspicious early bell was on his way to dropping, maybe stopping Joshua.
The end told the story, Joshua slumped to his corner dejected and defeated while Usyk walked with his head high and took in the moment. 
The judges did the right thing and gave Usyk a unanimous decision.  
What a win. Please don't take away from Usyk by saying Joshua is a bum! He isn't, he was the favourite!

I want to concentrate on Usyks greatness. He already an all time Cruiserweight, IMO no. 1, definitely top. 3. Now he's defeated the no. 2 Heavyweight in his back yard. Another thing about Usyk, he is The Ultimate Road Warrior. His last 10 fights, all vs Champions, all in their back yard, schooled or stopped all of them!!!

How can you not respect that???

I personally have him as an all time, Hall of Fame talent and currently I have to move him to P4P no 1.
I know Canelo is great too and maybe after, if, he unifies a higher than his natural weight class vs Caleb Plant I'll change my mind(P4P is ever changing and subjective).

What do you guys think??? How do you rate and rank Oleksandr Usyk??? 

Thanks Stephen, you got the 1st post in before Id finished!!! Haha
All good my man. 
Yes, any questions about anything boxing related. I mean anything then feel free to ask. 

I'm probably going to stop posting in random boxing event threads and try to keep it here. 
I think I'm also going to post highlights, compilations in the thread. There are some great YouTube channels out there that I think people will enjoy 

Usyk is a beast. He look really good in his fight. I really enjoyed the fight with Joshua. I'm a casual Boxing fan so I didn't much about Usuk, But Usyk really impress me as he's just outbox Joshua for at least 7 of the 12 round. He's jab and 1-2 were really fast and accurate. 

With a fight with Tyson Fury on the horizen. I think i might edge Fury as I think he just as techincal and smart, But actully bigger. But I had the same casual breakdown for that fight. So don't know

Also cool to have boxing discusion on here.  I'm trying to get more into boxing

* Edited at 09.26.2021, 7:04 PM ET *

There's a very strong argument to make for Usyk being P4P #!1. I still have Crawford but when he gets through Porter he's going to need to fight ESJ to really seal it in a lot of people's minds. He's not getting any younger, he hasn't really got that huge star power scalp on his mantle (Usyk does now) and if something doesn't change soon he may finish his career without it.

* Edited at 09.26.2021, 7:06 PM ET *

Welcome Duck!
You may be right about Fury being too big for Usyk but, shock horror!!!  I have a strong feeling in my bones that Wilder is gonna plant an Alabama Hammer on Fury and sleep him!!!  Not a technical pick, it is just a feeling.

Anyway, if you want to ask anything feel free. I won't just give my opinions here.  I'm also going to start posting links to articles and videos so you can see the info and research for yourself

Yeah I love Bud Crawford too, he was my no.1 for a while, even had him above Loma!!!
But, like I said P4P is ever changing, and now, after being at 147 for near 5 years and not facing 1 top 10 guy I have to downgrade Bud on strength of schedule.  It's a shame because I think he beats Spence, Ugas, Pac and Porter(that fight will help move him back up but it's not til November)

@Mikey1903

Sorry about stealing the first post, I'd have waited to let you have it if I'd known you were in the middle of writing an essay lol! Unfortunately there's no "@Mikey1903 is typing" feature on here like on WhatsApp and other places but at least you can say yours is the first proper post!

As for Usyk. Definitely the greatest Cruiserweight of all time and frankly, I don't think that's debatable. If anyone can come up with a solid argument for another name to be the greatest all time Cruiserweight then I'd be very interested to hear it.

As for Usyk's P4P status? There was already an argument for him being at least a top 5 current P4P boxer even before his move up to Heavyweight, such was his dominance at Cruiserweight. As for his current standing, I'd still put him 3rd behind Canelo in 2nd and Naoya Inoue in 1st. This is simply because despite what he achieved last night he has still only had 3 Heavyweight fights so he's still very much building his Heavyweight legacy but he's certainly made a very good start in to that. "But he just beat Anthony Joshua!" some may cry. So did Andy Ruiz Jr. but he's nowhere near the top of my P4P rankings. 

Canelo is undoubtedly the best Super Middleweight at the moment and I'm 100% convinced that he could go down to Middleweight or up to Light Heavyweight right now and **** up a few of the top guys but how dominant he'd be I'm not sure. I've got a feeling that if he moved up to Light Heavyweight, he'd be in very serious trouble in a fight against Artur Beterbiev who is one scary ************.  

As for Inoue, he's got World titles in 3 weight classes which speaks for itself really. Is the level of competition down there as good as in the higher weight classes though? The lower weight classes is still something I'm gradually watching more of and paying more attention to but there are some absolute beasts down there for sure so he's now can crusher. Being a 3 weight world champion while fighting against some seriously underrated guys (many of whom have very deceiving records at a glance which is undoubltby due to the competitiveness of those weight classes) has to put Inoue at #1 on my list.

And because I want to start a riot, here's my current top 5 P4P boxers.

#1 Naoya Inoue
#2 Saul "Canelo" Alvarez
#3 Oleksandr Usyk
#4 Terrance Crawford
#5 Josh Taylor

This is mine, it is ever changing but my current top 5 is pretty solid.  6 to 10 I could swap about them all and even add names like Beterbiev, Fury, Estrada, Tank etc.  But 1 to 5 I'm set on,,, for now!


1. Oleksandr Usyk
2. Canelo Alvarez
3. Naoya Inoue
4. Josh Taylor
5. Bud Carwford
6. Teofimo Lopez
7. Vasily Lomachenko
8. Emanuel Navarette
9. Errol Spence Jr
10. Roman Chocolatito Gonzalez

Ste[hen, I see you are a man of culture too!!  Same top 5 as me, different order, same guys!

@Mikey1903

I would've posted a top 10 but I have no idea who I'd put in the 6-10 spots though. Teofimo Lopez, Emanuel Navarrete, Chocolatito, Jamie Quinn, there are so many great names, I could go on and on!

Finally a proper boxing thread!! I can't wait to read the heck out of this.

My top 5 p4p:

Canelo
Usyk
Inoue 
Crawford
Taylor

There’s definitely an argument for Usyk as #1. Usyk is the goat cruiserweight imo and he just beat the (former) no.2 HW in the world. I still have Canelo at the top but if Usyk manages to beat the winner of Fury vs Wilder 3 he tops my list by a mile.

* Edited at 09.26.2021, 9:34 PM ET *

I just watched this video the other day and thought I'd share it. 
Salvador Sanchez, 1 of the greatest Mexican boxers of all time. But you may have never heard of him because he was tragically killed in a car crash weeks after his greatest victory, he defeated Azumah Nelson, himself an all timer, 1 of Africa's greatest of all time. 

If you have 15 minutes check this out. Such a shame that Sanchez life was cut short in his prime. I really feel he would be much higher regarded as a great.  Brilliant, brilliant boxer. Technically perfect, a killer instinct, punch power and of course that famous Mexican cardio and

I don't know why people hang **** on Wilder. He's a good dude. and I'm a fan. I would rather watch him sling unwieldy extinction-event meteorites and either lose doing it or land one and knock his opponent's ghost out of the stadium and into the next star system than watch Joshua play jab jab slip hook peekaboo against cruiserweights and obese Mexicans any day of the week whether he wins or not.

Can he beat Fury again? Yes. He can pink mist anyone at any moment. But my God does he need to get way better on the back foot and develop some semblance of pocket/infighting  because if he doesn't, it's going to go the same way as the last one. 

* Edited at 09.26.2021, 11:48 PM ET *

Does he really need to learn how to box off the back foot?

Orrrrrr, does he just have to swing that Alabama Hammer Baby??!!!!! Haha 

Can't lay down the Alabama BBQ if those lanky ass arms are tied up and can't get any travel when you've got a  270lb hairy-cracked gypo meth spazzing your **** with a blizzard of kung-pow strafed madness and you can't get him out of your grill. That's where his power comes from, not his weight.He needs space!  Basic physics. **** can either hurt by having a lot of mass behind it or by acceleration. and he's a whippet of a HW. That's why those extra lbs he put on didn't do anything. He's actually a tiny heavyweight and could probably fight at cruiser and probably will have a pop at supercruiser eventually. And will predictably get the **** beaten out of him by Usyk there at some point. And I'll still be a fan telling everybody in the world that he'd beat Joshua even if he's lost to him by first round KO at that point and will wave my empty wine bottle whilst wearing a mustard-stained tracksuit at anyone who disagrees, and tell them to gargle my nuts.

* Edited at 09.27.2021, 12:27 AM ET *

Well, if you're hoping Wilder suddenly learns how to box off the back foot and develop a nice clinch game you'll be disappointed my man. 
He's had 42 fights and also an amateur career, tho short, that included the 2008 Olympics Bronze medal.  He's not changed since he won't change now. 
What he has is a nuclear weapon. He has shown glimpses of a nice jab and an ability to counter, fast and hard!

Those are the tools he has those are what he should use.

I agree that putting on that weight wasn't a good idea. His quickness is what gives him all his advantages.

I think he has to just throw caution to the wind and swing with Fury. It's his only chance. Fury wants to be a bully and come to him, meet him head on with force!
I think that's his only shot

I was looking at everyone pound 4 pound list. I say I know every fighter on them  beside Josh Tayler. I was interested who he is and after looking at highlights I wonder why ain't he well know to at least the boxing casual like myself. He look fun to watch and very regarded. 

He's 18-0 with 13 KO and been a boxing champion since 7-0. I don't get why Don't I know him

* Edited at 09.27.2021, 1:13 AM ET *