Heavyweight veteran Michael Hunter does not believe the top players in the weight class are overly concerned with the abilities of Oleksandr Usyk.
Usyk, who unified the entire cruiserweight division, made a move to heavyweight ranks in 2019.
Usyk holds a decision win over Hunter at the cruiserweight level.
At the higher weight, he’s not the puncher he once was in the cruiserweight division.
He had some issues with Chazz Witherspoon and had to overcome some rough moments to win a tougher than expected decision over Derek Chisora.
Usyk is the WBO’s mandatory challenger to Anthony Joshua.
While Joshua competes with Tyson Fury in a full division unification, the WBO has approved Usyk vs. Joe Joyce for the vacant interim-WBO title.
But Hunter believes the main players don’t view Usyk as a legit threat.
“He is a fully fledged heavyweight. He’s taller than me,” Hunter told Sky Sports. “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.
“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.”