tobyh5 wrote: ↑11 Nov 2018, 13:19
Just watched it on mute. A lot of shots were blocked by Usyk, even in rounds 2 and 3, which seems to be agreed as TB rounds. I think Usyk was in control all the way (watching live I missed a lot of his little tricks - how he twisted the elbow in to deflect shots, moved head a fraction, cut off the ring etc) and he made TB work hard all the way.
Watching again, with mute and slowing down, rewinding, etc, Usyk bossed that fight tbh
Good post. Been saying this all along.
Most spectators were fooled by 1. Absurd bias cheerleading commentary & 2. Screaming crowd.
In reality, Usyk won every round.
Bellew's tactics from the off were that of a desperate fighter who knew he could not win. He reverted to a version of the rope-a-dope where the plan was to try and coax Usyk in - then take the Marquez approach of planting his feet and swinging hard hooks with Usyk, in the hope something would stick. But Usyk was far too smart for that game plan. He caught many of those hard shots on gloves/arms while rolling with them, or driving his own jab home. He set a pace that forced Bellew to throw alot more hard counters than he would have cared to throw. Usyks footwork constantly pressured Bellew back but the big man is so light on his feet he popped back out of range when needed. Applying criteria of effect aggression, Usyks tactics in this fight are textbook. His agression was incredibly effective, he faught his fight.
In reality Usyk's tactics, pressure and workrate meant he had ground the life out of Bellew by r6 or 7 without really having to go through the gears or overly exert himself with huge haymakers of his own. Bellew was gassed and became a sitting duck. The towel should have came in but there was an element of letting Bellew go out on his shield given all his bravado over the years. The comparisons of Usyk to Calzaghe are well founded imo, he's an awesome operator and the best of Usyk is still to come.
The little things Usyk did made all the difference