July 18, 2023
Boxing News

ESPN+ picks up Usyk-Dubois

The U.S. broadcast situation for the big August 26 heavyweight clash between unified WBA/WBO/IBF world champion Oleksandr Usyk and WBA “regular” champion Daniel Dubois has been resolved. Usyk-Dubois and undercard bouts will stream live and exclusively on ESPN+ starting at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT. The bout takes place at the Tarczyński Arena in Wroclaw, Poland.

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  • I wonder who is the greatest cruiser weight of all times???

    Usyk or Holyfield???

    • Hi Carlos, Holyfield was a better Heavyweight than he was a cruiser so logic is that Usyk is the best Cruiserweight of all time.

      • I respect your opinion but for me Eva ser was a better in cruiser than heavy weight
        Evander did great at heavy but he did greater at cruiser
        Is just my own opinion

      • You can’t really say that Holyfield has proven himself usyk is just a starter give him time though

        • You really can’t say that,Holyfield has proven himself,Usyk is just a starter,give him him time though

          • Mike, I don’t know where you are from or where you tried learning English from but please do yourself a favor and correctly learn the English language my friend.

            Holyfield no doubt in my mind the top cruiserweight of all time. That’s just my opinion of course and the opinion of many others who know their boxing

    • I think Holyfield because he had more fights at Cruiserweight. But I haven’t analyzed anything yet.

    • Both very good. Both can/could take a punch, but none of them are/were huge punchers. Usyk is actually a little bit taller and bigger. But let’s get real here, Holyfield did a shit load of gear/roids to become a full fledged heavyweight.

    • By the time Holyfield was the age Usyk is now, he was a three time heavyweight champion and had already faced Bowe 3 times, Moore and Tyson twice, Douglas, Mercer, Foreman, and Holmes. I know that is heavyweight and you are talking cruiser, but I thought the age comparison was worth noting. Holyfield was close to the downward slide of the Ruiz fights. So when comparing the cruiser careers, Holyfield cleared out the division at 190. Usyk unified, but didn’t clear the division and at 200, I doubt he could have made 190. So yeah, Holyfield by far at cruiser and Usyk would need to be dominant until he is in his late 40s to come close to Holyfield’s heavyweight legacy.

      • Cruiserweight not really signifcant-Division made up to create more “champions.” Anybody good in this division always moves up to heavyweight which they really are anyway.

    • I think its a difficult thing comparing fighters from different generations. Like todays Heavyweights do they have weaker competition or are they so good they make others look weak? You get people like Gatti and Ward who were C class fighters when they meet (end of their careers), but together they put on battles that would make them look great.

      If I had to pick I would say Usyk was the better CW and Holyfield was the better HW. Then again Im going off the styles I like to see and there will always be the argument to go the other way and I will always respect real fans and their thoughts on who is or was the better boxer / fighter.

    • Hard to answer , transition to heavyweight Holyfield easily. In my opinion there was a much better class of heavyweights in his time than there is today. And I’d lean towards Holyfield over Usyk at cruiserweight because of Holyfield’s relentless pressure

    • Awesome question.

      Both Holyfield and Usyk are two phenomena and probably these two are the best Cruiserweights in history. Most people would perhaps place Holyfield as number one?

      Would still like to point out some similarities and differences between these two fighters.

      Holyfield entered his first professional match when he had just turned 22. Usyk was almost 27.

      Holyfield’s amateur record was 160 – 14 and his finest award an Olympic bronze.

      Usyk’s amateur record was 335 – 15. He thus went 175 more fights than Holyfield. His finest honors were a gold medal in the Olympic Games, the World Championships and the European Championships.

      During Holyfield’s first 9 or so years as a professional, he went 30 fights, with 1 loss, and a full 11 of those fights were for a world title. An absolutely enormous achievement.

      The equivalent for Usyk is 20 fights, unbeaten, and half of all his fights have been for a world title. An absolutely stunning achievement too.

      After Holyfield’s first ten years as a boxer, his first losses began to trickle in. Totally 10 and 2 draws. That means Holyfield didn’t win 1 out of 4 fights in his professional career.

      At just over 36 years old, Usyk is undefeated as a professional. When Holyfield was the same age, he had 3 losses and 1 draw.

      If you count in both amateur and professional careers, it becomes very difficult to tell these two fighters apart.

      It’s not really fair to compare two fighters in this way, but can still be interesting. What bothers me most about this comparison is the high probability of the allegations against Holyfield regarding steroids.

      With all above in mind, Usyk becomes my pick as the best Cruiserweighter of all time.

  • Usyk is going to box circles around Dubois, will be another AJ vs Usyk 2

  • Usyk and tyson fury will be go down as to of the top heavyweights of all time along with rocky Marciano Lennox Lewis and vitali klitschko.

    • Sorry usyk and Tyson Fury will not happen because Tyson Fury is scared to fight him it won’t happen

    • Are you crazy or just haven’t watched a lot of boxing as long as me

      • Who doesn’t like Joe Louis? But the heavyweights today have a bigger suit than in the 40s and 50s. 180 lb/81 kg is not enough against many of the heavyweight camps of the last 30 – 40 years. I would love to see him at light heavyweight and maybe at cruiserweight though.

  • Prime Holyfield knocks Usyk out in either weight class..Holifield was a boxer puncher..he just chose to engage ..he knocks Joshua out in similar fashion he did buster douglas..prime James Toney would beat Usyk..these are clever fighters unlike todays guys

    • I love both Toney and Holyfield but believe Usyk is more cerebral than both, and has great conditioning. It hurts me to say it but I think Usyk out-volumes Holyfield and against Toney at Cruiser, I think Usyk would outsmart him late, like Jones Jr did. Jones was not a better athlete than Toney, he just made better tactical decisions.

    • Nope. Usyk is absurdly fast. And he’s not all that small at 6’3” 225. That’s not to say Holyfield wasn’t great, but I don’t see him catching Usyk and he didn’t have enough one punch power to stop Usyk.

    • Well one thing is evander ko usyk and another thing is who is better in cruiserweight
      They both great

  • I wouldnt be surprised if Dubois catches him. Usyk is 36 now and can rely on those reflexes for so much longer. Usyk wont have that long jab that the Juggernaut had to keep Dubois at bay. Usyk will need to take chances.
    Good to see somebody finally get a shot instead of Fury/Usyk sitting on the titles.
    Zhilei Zhang was more deserving and likely is Fury’s biggest threat.

  • — Boys, gonna make it simple for you.

    Usyk a Olympic gold medal Heavyweight has been fighting at the high end of 200+ lbs the entirety of his pro career now has a better record that Holyfield at heavy, ie 26-0, 16 KO vs 26-10-2 of Holyfield at Heavyweight.

    No Comparison. Usyk competition is consistently stiffer as well. Most of his fights have been title fights where he remains undefeated, where as Holyfield has a 10-6-2 title record at heavy.

    In Baseball for example, it’s best not to compare different era players. Same with most sports where rule changes are the rules that alter the sport significantly.

    Enjoy what you got today, for tomorrow could change everything…

    • Yea we can compare any sport player with other one
      But sometimes it’s hard or difficult and sometimes almost impossible according to the situations

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