“He’ll Have To Do Something Significantly Better” Says David Haye
There was quite a lot to take away from last night’s entertaining and engrossing heavyweight battle between Oleksandr Usyk and Dereck Chisora. It was interesting seeing how Usyk, with his great boxing brain, coped with the relentless, give it all ya got pressure of Chisora. It was also fascinating seeing how Usyk’s chin, and body, held up whenever Chisora managed to land a decent shot.
Of course, above all else, last night’s fight was very much an audition from Usyk, with the experts trying to make up their minds on whether not the gifted Ukrainian southpaw is capable of realising his goal of becoming undisputed heavyweight champ. For some, the jury is still out. At times, Usyk looked brilliant against Chisora, at other times the former unified cruiserweight king was caught with punches. While at other times, Usyk’s crisp, accurate shots simply bounced off Chisora.
It’s probably safe to say Usyk will not be scoring a KO if and when he fights either Tyson Fury or Anthony Joshua. Usyk’s thing is to box, box, box. But can he does this against a monster heavyweight? Chisora is a big guy, yet he is not as big as Fury, or as big and as powerful as Joshua. Usyk, now 2-0(1) as a heavyweight, knows he has to up his game, that he will have to perform better than he did last night if he’s to beat AJ or Fury. Usyk gave his performance from last night a score of 3 out of 10. While David Haye, Chisora’s manager, told IFL TV that Usyk’s manager had last night’s fight scored a draw.
“I think he’ll have to do something significantly better,” Haye said when asked if Usyk can become heavyweight champion. “Usyk’s manager had the fight a draw. If you’re looking at beating the likes of Fury and AJ, that shouldn’t have been the result. If you’re the best in the world, that shouldn’t have been such a tight, close fight.”
As far as a Joshua Vs. Usyk fight, we must now wait and see whether AJ meets his WBO mandatory requirements and defends against Usyk, or if Joshua decides to vacate the WBO belt. The big fight the word wants is of course a Joshua-Fury showdown. If AJ did drop the WBO belt, Usyk could possibly wind up fighting Daniel Dubois for the vacant strap. That would be an interesting, but would this satisfy Usyk? Usyk has said he will accept nothing less than being undisputed heavyweight ruler.
For now, Usyk, like the rest of us, will have to wait and see how things unfold. It is likely, however, that most fans will agree that Usyk has to up his game from what he managed last night if he’s to defeat Joshua and/or Fury.
