Oleksandr Usyk does not have the punching power to attract crowds or to succeed as a heavyweight, according to fellow fighter Michael Hunter.
The pair fought when they were both at the cruiserweight division, a weight that Usyk unified in order to become undisputed champion.
Usyk stepped up to the heavyweight division and beat Dereck Chisora in 2020 in order to become the WBO mandatory challenge. That should entitle him to take on Anthony Joshua but AJ is due to fight WBC champion Tyson Fury, and the Ukrainian is set to take on Joe Joyce instead.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Hunter recognised Usyk’s skills.
"He is a fully fledged heavyweight. He's taller than me," Hunter said.
"He's a small fully-fledged heavyweight, but I think that it's going to be very hard for Usyk to get heavyweight fights.
"I think that other heavyweights don't see him as a heavyweight.
"Another thing I think he's going to have a problem with in [the heavyweight division] is people want to see [fighters] getting knocked out and coming off the canvas.
"He doesn't do any of that or have any of those components.
"Even like myself, I'm more of a boxer-puncher, I'll put myself on the line, or go forward to get the knockout. Go above and beyond just protecting yourself at all times.
"That's one thing that I don't think he can do is, because he's really a pure boxer. To be a fighter and to try to do that as a heavyweight, I think that will be setting yourself up for failure.
"I thought the Joe Joyce fight was probably the good route for him. The only route I can see him actually going."
Hunter has beaten Martin Bakole, Sergey Kuzmin and Alexander Povetkin since moving up to heavyweight himself, and is due to fight Croatian Filip Hrgovic to decide the IBF mandatory designation.
Hunter believes that Usyk does not have the firepower to attract a big-money fight, saying: "I don't see him, other than getting a mandatory, and somebody that he can probably easily outbox.
"But nobody is going to really respect him. He's not going to get those big fights.
"None of the big guys want to lose by a paintbrush and not know how to come back in the next fight and fix it."