Others take a step back, survey the landscape of this heavyweight era and place a large asterisk beside assertions of Usyk’s greatness.
“The heavyweight division is bad now. Tough to watch with limited talent,” said one comment on our post-fight piece. “He’s the best of an average bunch; heavyweight boxing has been done for a while now,” said a post on X. “Weak era,” said another.
Comparing eras in any sport is fun, but it’s a fool’s game. We can speculate about whether Usyk would have beaten those aforementioned heavyweights in their prime, but that’s as far as we can go. No one will ever know for certain. It feels somewhat mean-spirited to denigrate the achievements of a fighter who has beaten all before him (twice in the cases of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and now Dubois) on the basis of what might have been.
You can also ask the question: what constitutes greatness in sport? Is it solely based on success on the field of play? Is it all about the opponents defeated, medals won and belts placed around one’s waist, or is there more to it?
Ali’s greatness is often attributed not only to the skilled fighter he was inside the ring, but also to the person he was outside of it: his character, his willingness to speak his truth, and to stand up for what he believed was right.