Promoter Eddie Hearn wonders if Oleksandr Usyk will be able to withstand the incoming firepower from heavyweight banger Derek Chisora. This coming Saturday night, Usyk will take part in his second heavyweight contest when he faces Chisora at the SSE Arena in Wembley. Usyk made his heavyweight debut last year, when he stopped late replacement Chazz Witherspoon – but the Olympic gold medal winner was not overly impressive at the new weight.
And the contest was only his second fight since knocking out Tony Bellew in the fall of 2018. At the moment Uysk is the WBO’s mandatory challenger to unified world champion Anthony Joshua. What do we know about Usyk? Genius. Amazing footwork. Punch selection, timing, mental capacity What we don’t know? How tough he is under heavyweight firepower. When he boxed Chazz Witherspoon there were a few signs that he didn’t like what was coming back. Witherspoon is nowhere near as good or fast as Chisora, Hearn told Sky Sports.
There are a lot of questions for Usyk to answer at heavyweight but he is a genius who will go down as one of the greatest fighters of our generation. At cruiserweight, Usyk unified the entire division and defeated every top contender at the weight. There was nothing left for him to do – except move up in weight to hunt for more gold. This is the perfect test for Usyk. He is one of the greatest fighters of all time. He did everything at cruiserweight – he became undisputed champion and pound-for-pound king. Now he moves to heavyweight – we know that in the amateurs he boxed Joe Joyce so he has operated at that level. But with small gloves and 12 rounds? This is different, Hearn said.
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