Tony Bellew praised Oleksandr Usyk as ‘the best fighter I’ve ever faced’ after defeating Anthony Joshua over the weekend.
Bellew retired after losing to Usyk in a cruiserweight title fight, and the Ukrainian eventually moved into the heavyweight division to pursue more belts. He now holds the IBF, IBO, WBA, and WBO belts, with only The Ring and the WBC titles held by another fighter, Tyson Fury.
Fury has previously been identified as the only boxer with the speed and strength to be the clear favorite against Usyk, but that could be in doubt after his impressive showing against Joshua.
Speaking on the DAZN Boxing Show, Bellew explained how Usyk’s intelligence leaves him poised for victory against others.
Usyk, Bellew said, is, “Literally watching you for the first three rounds, every reaction and move you make, it everything he does, he absorbs it like a computer, and then he flips it around, and he makes you look at yourself, and all this time you're thinking throughout the bout.”
Bellew thinks the mental energy Joshua spent on dealing with Usyk left him fatigued by the championship rounds.
“So by the time Joshua got to the end of the 11th time, he was completely mentally exhausted,” he explained.
“And he showed a serious set of plums to go after that 12th round because exhaustion had seriously kicked in - he's a hard fighter to beat. He's just he's really, really good at what he does, the best fighter I’ve ever faced by a country mile.”