The undefeated 2012 Olympic heavyweight gold medalist and current Wbo champion Oleksandr Usyk entered this fight with a perfect boxing record of 10-0-0 (9 KOs=90%) and he is ranked as the No.1 cruiserweight in the world. He has won over Pedro Rodriguez (=Usyk vs Rodriguez) and Krzysztof Glowacki in his last two bouts (=Glowacki vs Usyk).
His opponent, Thabiso Mchunu, has an official record of 17-2-0 (11 knockouts) and he entered as the No.39 in the same weight class. He lost to Ilunga Makabu in 2015 but he came back to win against Boniface Kabore in 2016. Usyk vs Mchunu is valid for the WBO World cruiserweight title (Usyk’s first defense); undercard of Bernard Hopkins vs Joe Smith Jr. Watch the video and rate this fight!
Date: 2016-12-17
Where: Forum, Inglewood, California, USA
Division: cruiserweight (200 lbs, 90.7 kg)
Title: WBO World cruiserweight title
Usyk’s previous fight: Krzysztof Glowacki vs Oleksandr Usyk
Usyk’s next fight: Oleksandr Usyk vs Michael Hunter
Video: (Free embeddable video hosted on Dailymotion and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights, to report it please visit this link where the video is hosted)
Official video
Official highlights
Another good fight from a very technical and competent boxer. Once again Usyk displayed his usual confidence and capabilities in front of a very articulated boxer and adequate rival. He is a very technical boxer who takes his time to analyze his adversaries before getting in full into the fight. Usyk was mainly right in this bout during the first two rounds since Tashibo was a very effective counter puncher that caught him quite well in few occasions. Usyk has master and agile moves in the ring and able to shot punches from very different angles. A must to see his next fights.
Time to step up. If Joshua’s signed to fight Wlad, Usyk needs to dare with Lebedev or one of the other CW monsters.
He needs that competition to prove his talent.
I’m looking forward to see him being tested.