There has been a lot of chat lately about Lennox Lewis on where he stands all-time in heavyweights and Usyk is the current heavyweight no.1.
But just by the skin of his teeth by pulling out a last ditch uppercut knockout on the back foot near the end of a fight with a kickboxing champion.
A kickboxing champion who only had one professional boxing match to his name before they fought recently.
His TKO over Rico lately in boxing was a disputed stoppage and most thought it should not have been stopped.
Usyk had shown decline at heavyweight badly and most contenders on the night would have beaten Usyk easily on that performance recently with Rico.
On Lewis, the likes of Al Bernstein and others have been talking recently about Lennox Lewis being the greatest heavyweight ever.
Lewis came out and denied that and said he was the third best ever.
Behind Muhammad Ali and Jack Johnson both ahead of him he said recently.
A Lennox Lewis vs Usyk fight would have seen a far bigger, technically more competent, more powerful boxer fight a smaller one.
And against a not that much faster, less technically gifted, smaller man in Usyk trying to compete with Lewis, moreover.
Usyk competed in a weak era for the heavyweights as well.
That is the reality of it.
To compare the two is unfathomable and Lewis could have boxed him on the back foot if he wanted at range and toyed with him with the jab at distance.
He could have bust his face up then and after a few rounds started detonating big right hands and uppercuts on him.
That would have been sickening for Usyk to keep taking.
Which, as sure as night follows day, he would have.
Usyk is a durable boxer who can really take a shot and a beating but that would have been too much mass and ability for him to deal with.
You could say Usyk had the faster feet and better footwork but Lewis was not slow and his footwork for a big man was very solid.
He could have took the fight on the inside to Usyk as well if he wanted to and leaned on him on the ropes with the weight advantage he would have had.
To wear him down for a bit, then ended him at a time of his choosing.
Usyk showed against Rico his gas tank was not that great either at heavyweight and Lewis had a good engine back in the day.
He would not have slowed down the pace of pinging him at any range he wanted to — with a much better jab than Usyk as well.
Lewis was more accurate in his work and had a better punch variation as well.
While not much of a left hook or body shot guy, he had most other punches in his locker.
He could have head hunted Usyk with ease but that jab would have been a difficult thing to get inside of for Usyk.
Lewis could have used it as a range finder and as a weapon in the contest, which, would only have compounded Usyk’s problems further.
The right hook would have landed at points for Lewis on Usyk as well.
Lewis was able to put this into his combinations amid uppercuts and jabs in strong sequences that would have absolutely wiped out Usyk.
Uysk you could say might have opted to go to the body of Lewis to try to wear the bigger man down.
But Lewis was solid when training in the mid section and this was never an issue for him if you go over his professional career.
When Lewis had to get into trench warfare and wars of atttrition in the sweet science he could do no problem as well.
If Usyk did catch him early on Lewis would have handled this.
Unless he caught him cold like Hasim Rahman did in their fight in South Africa — Lewis had the durability to deal with Usyk’s power as well.
Lennox Lewis was a better boxer than Oleksandr Usyk.
A more powerful and bigger athlete.
Plain and simple.
Lennox Lewis would have brutally knocked Usyk out.
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