Sorry haven't popped in in a while. Been super busy. Great fight on Saturday.
My takeaways:
1. Usyk was masterful with his foot placement (see how his lead foot was always on the outside of Joshua's lead?), his feints (body and head) and Joshua simply doesn't have the head movement to avoid his one-two and deadly accurate right down the middle. These are adjustments Joshua probably can't correct in 6 months or with an instant rematch.
2. Joshua fought well contrary to some of the shite I've seen about him being a "bum", or "exposed", fickle "fans" like that are simply shitting on the quality of Usyk and the magnitude of his achievements. I personally hate to see a great fighter have credit taken away from him because some so-called fans are more into hating a fighter (in this case Joshua) than being a fan of the sport or giving someone credit they earned. Joshua, you could see, was making adjustments. He looked like a big clumsy lump for the first four rounds and was badly outclassed but fought well in the middle rounds, connecting some decent shots and taking the play away from Usyk at times. You could see him thinking and certain things working and that's to be credited because after four rounds he looked like he'd lose every round. Still, Usyk's determination, skill, will etc; saw him dominate late. I had him winning the first four and the last four, and of the middle four rounds he won 1 or 2 of them. I think 117-111 felt like the right score.
3. Usyk is certainly the best fighter in the world, and to my estimation, he's the greatest of his era (Mayweather-Pacquaio being the end of the previous era). He's a special talent and a rare character. Think about this: While it took Canelo years and some subpar GGG performances to put his big boy pants on, take some PED's and fight him, he ran away after getting a gift draw and what most consider a gift "win." Look at how difficult it is to get American fighters to fight tough fights, with the exception of Shawn Porter. Spence-Crawford is already past due. Look at the state of the lightweights, just going to social media while doing nothing. Usyk beat a well-regarded unbeaten champion in Krzysztof Glowacki in his backyard in Poland to win a world title in his 10th fight, beats a good unbeaten American challenger, and now respected heavyweight, Michael Hunter, in America. Enters the WBSS, not knowing who he'd have to fight, and is it went, he beat one of the best cruisers ever in Marco Huck in Germany, his backyard, then beats undefeated Mairis Briedis, adding his second title, in his backyard of Latvia (and look at what Briedis has gone on to achieve since...), then went to Russia to beat undefeated Murat Gassiev, who was on fire and held the other two belts. Usyk shut him out. Then he came to England knocked out Bellew, now he's gone to England again in front of 70,000 fans and put on a clinic against a very big, heavy hitting heavyweight champion, who's younger than him and had three titles. There's no drama with Usyk. He's proof if a fighter wants the fights, the fights happen. No controversial wins, no failed PED tests, no suspicions of PED's, no trash talk, just fights, wins, and looks incredible almost every time. I hope he gets the rematch in Ukraine, as he deserves to fight at home for once.
4. Wilder would be cannon fodder for Usyk, Fury would be a style issue. Usyk is definitely the better boxer than Fury, but Fury has height and reach and knows how to use it, isn't afraid to stink it out. He also doesn't gas, so it's a tall order for Usyk, but he's definitely live in that fight.
My new p4p: 1. Usyk 2. Inoue 3. Crawford 4. Lomachenko* 5. Canelo 6. Taylor 7. Fury 8. Lopez 9. Estrada 10. Spence
* Lomachenko above Lopez? Yeah, he's a better fighter and I'm convinced he'd win a rematch rather easily. He carried an injury which was quite clear and it was a case of Lopez also coupling that injury with a massive size advantage but he didn't really do anything. It was a case of both guys doing nothing, but him doing a bit better at doing nothing for the first half, but then Lomachenko bossing the action when they did fight a little. Canelo, as many know, I'm not as blown away as others. The obvious cheating, plus a lot of gift decisions and now he's just moved up to a really, really weak division as middleweight was hot? That was a shitty move IMO. Beterbiev is on the cusp but I wasn't thrilled with his last performance. Estrada, I love, but think lost to Chocolatito, and has a lot of tread in his tires, especially for the lower weights, but his resume is top notch.