Oleksandr Usyk Could Repeat Roy Jones Jr.’s Career-Ending Mistake With Risky Decision

Oleksandr Usyk wants to go back to where it all started, the cruiserweight division! When he made the switch to the heavyweight division, he fulfilled what he set out to achieve: undisputed status. On May 18th, he created history by handing Tyson Fury the first-ever defeat of his career, and in the process becoming the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999.

However, the former cruiserweight boxer is not happy with his diet currently. The sheer intake of calories to maintain weight in the heavyweight category is messing up his mental fortitude. Hence, he wants to come back down to his former hunting ground: the 200-pound weight category. However, a significant weight cut at the age of 37 may prove to be detrimental for a boxer. One only has to look at Roy Jones Jr’s career trajectory to make the assessment.

Usyk abhors heavyweight gastronomical adventure

In an interview with 3 Knockdown Rule, Usyk expressed his interest in moving to cruiserweight after his rematch with Tyson Fury slated in December of this year. “Maybe I can be undisputed for a second time in the cruiserweight division, it’s my plan,” he said. For the uninitiated, Usyk became the undisputed champion in the cruiserweight division after beating Russian Murat Gassiev in 2018.

“When I start my [heavyweight] training camps, I’m eating all the time. For me its hard, I don’t like it. Three times [per day]. Water, protein, bananas, it’s a lot of food,” he added.

The Ukrainian’s last fight in the cruiserweight division was against Tony Bellew in Manchester Arena in 2018. ‘The Cat’ started his professional career as a cruiserweight in 2013, and made his foray into the heavyweight category in 2019 with a fight against Chazz Witherspoon.

However, the big question in everybody’s mind is: Will he be able to handle the transition from heavyweight to cruiserweight again? Age is catching up to him, and there is fear that the weight cut could severely diminish his boxing prowess. We have seen modern boxers like Ryan Garcia complain about weight cutting. In fact, he chalked up his solo loss to Gervonta Davis to being weight-drained which made him significantly weaker on the day of the fight.

Moreover, rarely does any boxer move down from heavyweight to the lower weights. One such boxer who made the switch paid a heavy price for doing it.

Roy Jones Jr’s fall from grace

The former four-weight-division champion, Roy Jones Jr. who dominated the middleweight-light-heavyweight divisions during his heydays, dazzled the boxing world by his moving, feinting, and his counter punching ability. Fighting most of the time with his guard low, he used his quick reflexes to his advantage.

However, after his win against John Ruiz to secure the WBA heavyweight title, he decided to come down to light-heavyweight again at the age of 34 to defend his belts. And then, many boxing experts believe he was never the same boxer. After a controversial win over Tarver, he suffered three back-to-back losses, two of them ending in KOs. His career after the transition was marred by five knockout losses. Accompanying by his weight cut, came the slowing of his reflexes. In the latter half of his career, he was getting hit a lot. With a chin that got exposed more and more over the years, Jones suffered a total of ten losses in his career.

“I just think Roy killed himself when he came back down from heavyweight. It’s probably one of the dumbest things he’s ever done. First of all, when you win a heavyweight championship, at 36, 37 years old and losing 20 pounds of muscle, that killed his body,” Glen Johnson, the second fighter to ever beat Jones, said to ESPN in an interview back in 2005.

“You win a heavyweight championship, you lose to a heavyweight, not to a light heavyweight,” he added.

Like Jones, will Usyk’s downfall start once he goes back to cruiserweight? Or, will Usyk become undisputed again in that weight category? Let us know in the comment section below.