Johnny Nelson has stood by his claim that Tony Bellew is ‘technically better’ that Oleksandr Usyk.
The former WBO cruiserweight world champion, now a Sky Sports Boxing pundit, caused debate among fans with the statement he made before Usyk’s KO win over Bellew in 2018.
In the fight itself, the Brit started better than many expected and was indeed winning rounds against the Ukrainian and countering him well.
Ultimately though, Usyk wore Bellew down and knocked him out in round eight.
Now, he is set to face Anthony Joshua on Saturday night and Nelson was asked about his previous remark.
On reflection, Nelson stood firm and told iFL TV: “When they fought each other – all the people that are pulling that up – look at the fight, you tell me who was ahead on points up until the stoppage.
“Simple as that.
“Look at how Bellew was dealing with negating the shots, slipping the shots, using the shoulder, digging to the body and dropping it to the head.
“You look at the fight and tell me who was ahead on points to the point of the stoppage.
“And it was Bellew.”
Comparing Usyk vs Bellew to Joshua vs Usyk, Nelson continued: “You’ve got physical pressure and you’ve got mental pressure, physical intelligence and mental intelligence.
“Physically what Bellew did was the right thing, Usyk was happy to gamble and think, ‘I’m gonna put this man under mental pressure to break him down.’
“And it worked for him. What I’m saying is he can’t afford to do that with Joshua.
“Because Joshua’s far too confident, has far too much belief and hits far too damn hard for my man to give that s*** away.
“If he [Usyk] does that, he’s gonna have to take some risks in the second half of the fight.”
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