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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 3977692, member: 289"] Watched Usyk defeat Joshua tonight. They were hyping it as David vs. Goliath and saying that Usyk was braving the "one punch knockout power" of Joshua. The fact is, Usyk is 6-3 and Joshua 6-6 and they seemed to have confused Joshua with Wilder. Somebody also said that boxing fans want to see knockouts, not two guys just moving around the ring and boxing. If so they were disappointed with this bout. I certainly wasn't. Usyk was what used to be known in boxing as a 'cutie': he moved around the ring, shifting back and forth, also moving he head back and forth, making himself a difficult target, but picking his spots to deliver a 'left cross' with some effect. He's a lefty and there was a constant battle between Usyk and Joshua to position their lead foot and Usyk seemed often to win that battle. Just as football fans tend to 'follow the ball' and not pay attention to what's happening in the line, boxing fans look at the top of the fighters and don't see what's going on below. Joshua has always been a 'textbook' fighter, by which I mean you could illustrate a text book with how he positions himself, how the throws this punch and that punch. But it's all kind of mechanical. It's great if his opponent stays directly in front of him but when the opponent is elusive and the punches come from angles he doesn't expect, he has trouble dealing with it. But he did seem to be dealing with it in the middle rounds. He got his jab going and hurt Usyk with body shots that seemed to slow him down. But in the 9th round Usyk got his second wind and apparently decided he needed a knockout. he never got it but he turned the flow of the bout back in his favor. Instead of using lateral movement, he went right at Joshua and backed him off with aggressive punching. Joshua kept going with the jab but it wasn't enough to keep Usyk off of him. In the final moments of round 12, Joshua finally began to fade and Usyk forced him into the ropes with combinations but the fight ended before Usyk could finish him off. I gave Usyk 6 rounds, Joshua 4 and two even: 116-114. the judges were 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113. Joshua's career spins back out of control. he was always something of a paper tiger anyway. Now we get Fury-Wilder III. Usyk is probably the best of the bunch but against Fury it really would be David vs. Goliath. [/QUOTE]

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