He's 6'3" and walks around at 220 lbs, that'd be perfect HW size in the 70-90s, but was downright undersized by the 2010s when you had the giants dominating the division.
Who cares? Some of his legacy will be at heavy and some will be at cruiser. that makes him a pfp great, and that is a great thing!
If I had to stake a claim, Usyk didn't go down the heavyweight route and was moved slowly pre-Glowacki (4+ years between winning Olympic gold at 25 and his first cruiser title at 29) because K2 promotions preferred it that way. Wlad had the belts, was a huge name and brought in the money, Usyk did not. Usyk turned pro in 2013, Wlad was still on top in 2015 and his dethroning as a 4/1 favourite was unexpected, with Wlad having signed a 5 fight extension to his TV deal before the Fury fight (there was talk of Wlad breaking Louis's title defence record and Wilder and Joshua weren't going to Germany to fight an unbeaten since 2004 Wlad in 2015, perhaps not ever). K2 didn't want Wlad and Usyk fighting as they perceived it wouldn't have benefitted them whatever the result (and perhaps Wlad didn't want it either), Usyk was always intended to contend at heavyweight after Wlad had retired. Wlad retired ahead of schedule in 2017, Usyk completed his cruiser campaign in 2018.
I'd say that in a P4P sense, cruiser was a far more dangerous place to be in than the heavy scene for much of the time Usyk was at his best.
The war did not obviously happen in the meantime: his first fight in HW was in 2019, which way a year after the Gassiev fight. The full-scale invasion started in 2022.
If Usyk was a weight bully then we need a whole new term for it at the lower weights. Putting on 7 pounds from 200 to 207 is a 3.5% increase. Haney putting on 25 pounds from 140 to 165 is a 17.8% increase. In other words Haney increasing his mass by FIVE TIMES the amount Usyk did.
And when the heck Usyk was talking that he is struggling with making CW weight? And the CW limit is 200 pound, not 199. Check your facts first. Usyk never struggle or had any problem making weight. Claiming a weight bully is ridiculous. Against Bellew on the scale he was 198.Bellew was 199.4 or so. Again he was 207 fight night weight against Hunter, 208 against Mchunu. At the scale against Gassiev he was 198 again, and i think at fight night he say he was 208. Essentially he was around that weight in most of his CW fight. He is a CW fighter and his prime was there. He is fighting way above his natural weight + he is out of his prime by a good margin.
This! No one is going to conquer heavyweight then go down to CW, but a couple have managed to do the jump from CW > HW and as yet NO ONE has done the jump from Undisputed Cruiser > Undisputed Heavy. He had the right plan and learned a ton in CW - his fight with Breidis alone must have been a doozy for craft, heart and knowing his limits
I think the main reason is that despite what the nostalgia club like to pretend, SHW's are a real problem for people the size of old HW's. If they weren't, people like Usyk would definitely just fight there from the beginning since the money and prestige is massively different. People will point to the AJ fight as some kind of proof that SHW size doesn't matter when it obviously proves the opposite. Usyk had far more skill and ability yet still struggled to beat down and stop AJ, who doesn't even have a good chin at HW. He also had to fight more carefully because of the power coming back. He probably saw Povetkin proving this concept also. Povetkin is really a cruiser by today's sizes and when he ran into Wlad and even AJ (though Povetkin was old by then), he was badly hurt and found himself defeated mainly due to the huge size difference.
RIght after he beat Bellew and move up. There were talks. Whyte and Povetkin was first two choice and they wanted to fight too, but for some reason, team Usyk said no. He is very inactive
He is talking nonsenses as usual, when it comes to Usyk. He has an agenda against him for quite some time now. When Usyk moved to HW, he was CW WBO Champion, he automatically become WBO Champion mandatory for AJ WBO title. Usyk moving to HW and challenging AJ, was well known thing when he beats Gassiev and become Undisputed. In order for Usyk to actually get his mandatory he was essentially forced to struck a deal with Hearn, who become his co-promoter. And that's how Bellew fight, Chisora fight and Witherspoon fight was made. Through Eddie Hearn. And Whiterspoon was essentially a replacement for Tyrone Spong, who was supposed to face Usyk, but failed a drud test. Usyk was essentially forced to goes through a series of opponents and also sign a rematch clause in order to face AJ. And he was put on hold, as AJ lost to Ruiz and had to rematch him, and then had to due his IBF mandatory against Pulev. It was 3 or 4 fight deal with Hearn, don't remember anymore, and it doesn't even matter. Usyk also struggle with the weight gain and have to fix few injuries along the way. So blaming Usyk for not facing this or that guy is laughable. Especially when you have to add a COVID and the WAR that happen in Ukraine, which is huge factor.
