Oleksandr Usyk is currently the man to beat in boxing’s heavyweight division, but a former British world champion has claimed that, had they ever met at cruiserweight, he would have handed the Ukrainian his first, and only, career defeat.
Johnny Nelson captured the WBO cruiserweight world title in 1999 with a fifth-round stoppage of Carl Thompson, and defended his title 13 times before eventually calling time on his boxing career in 2005.
Usyk captured that same WBO cruiserweight title nine years later, in 2016, and defended it six times, while also adding the rest of the cruiserweight belts to become the undisputed king at 200 pounds.
Chatting to Spinbit, Nelson was asked how he might have fared if the pair had occupied the cruiserweight division at the same time, and he claimed that, had he met Usyk while in his prime, he would have defeated the Ukrainian superstar.
“I would’ve won,” he said.
“I say that and people think ‘What is Johnny talking about?!’ But I am saying it from when I boxed.
“I’m 58 years old now, but in my prime I would have won.”
Nelson went on to break down the fantasy matchup between the pair, and stated that his fighting style would have made him too tricky to handle for Usyk.
“Oleksandr Usyk’s style is unorthodox and most of these orthodox boxers struggle to deal with him,” he said.
“I’m from a gym of unorthodox fighters. Oleksandr Usyk and Vasyl Lomachenko admit they use to watch Prince Naseem Hamed, how he trained and boxed. They tried to mimic that in the gym, they admitted it themselves, so they know how hard that unorthodox style is to beat.
“A lot of fighters who have gone into the ring with Oleksandr Usyk have been beaten before they have even gone in there. They chose the wrong mentality and put him on a pedestal. They are trying to second guess the situation and have not known how to deal with an unorthodox fighter.”
Nelson explained that he would have approached a fight with Usyk differently to most, using his trademark counter-punching, switch-hitting style to keep Usyk guessing.
“I would have boxed him off the back foot, switched from orthodox to southpaw, boxed defensively and be smart,” he said.
“I would make him come forward, make him walk onto the shots and that’s what he would do. He’s very good with his footwork and constantly trying to edge and pressure a fighter down and he’s good at that. But if you’re a fighter who doesn’t know how to deal with it then you will never deal with it.
“It’s like southpaw fighters struggle with southpaws, most orthodox fighters struggle with southpaws but the southpaws that are skilful will know how to fight southpaws and orthodox fighters. You have to understand the mentality of unorthodox fighters out there.”
