On paper, this is a complete mismatch. An unbeaten star of boxing and comfortably one of the best to ever do it at cruiserweight, meets a 32-9 established heavyweight, who has been on the scene for over a decade. However, there's a lot more to this fight than originally meets the eye.
We'll be breaking the fight down and figuring out how both fighters can win this fight along with giving our own FightZone betting prediction.
Olympic gold medalist, unified cruiserweight champion of the world are just two of his biggest accolades to date.
After winning gold at London 2012, the Ukrainian turned professional in late 2013 and he took to the professional ranks like a duck to water with nine stoppage victories in his first nine fights. His first points victory came in his 10th bout when he claimed the WBO World Cruiserweight title with a convincing victory over Krzysztof Glowacki.
So, how does Usyk win this fight? It's quite simple. He doesn't carry the one-punch knockout power that some heavyweights carry but what he does carry is accumulative power. Usyk hits his opponents from angles they didn't realise existed until then. Usyk's punch accuracy and footwork are almost faultless and in all, he is just the far superior boxer of the two.
Chisora will bring the fight to Usyk, no doubt. The Ukrainian will need to be light on his fight and from his awkward southpaw stance, he'll need to just keep poking that jab out and when Chisora does come flying in with big punches over the top, be able to take that half a step back and throw a one-two down the pipe or pivot off and work Chisora's body under his high guard.
In all, he needs to break Chisora mentally. But if he does have continued success throughout the fight and finds a home for his jab and straight left hand, it will be a very rough night at the office for Chisora.
One of the most experienced fighters in the heavyweight division at the moment, Chisora has built up a reputation for being arguably one of the more entertaining fighters inside and outside of the ring in world boxing.
Despite having only 20 fights as an amateur, Chisora did win the 2006 ABA Championships at super heavyweight but his professional career would turn out to be far more successful than his amateur one.
'Delboy', as he used to be known, has never been a fighter to duck a fight. He's shared the ring with the likes of Vitali Klitschko, David Haye, Kubrat Pulev, Dillian Whyte and Tyson Fury on two occasions. However, he's only fought for a world title once and victory over Usyk here will undoubtedly put him in prime position to potentially fight Anthony Joshua in early 2021.
Where and how does Chisora win this fight? Well, it's fair to say he probably needs a knockout. As previously mentioned, Usyk is without doubt the far superior boxer with the better ring IQ. However, what Chisora lacks in intelligence, he makes up for with his one-punch power and engine.
Nine of Chisora's last 10 wins have come by stoppage against established heavyweights, so there's no questioning the fact he can punch. The Brit also needs to be dirty. A common problem when a southpaw fights an orthodox is standing on each other's feet. Chisora needs to get that front foot all over Usyk's lead foot so that when 'Delboy' does decide to step into range to land a big shot, the Ukrainian will more than likely be caught off balance which obviously means more chance of Chisora getting a knockdown.
If the Londoner manages to do the above along with cutting the ring off with big steps and not just little movements, he has the potential to cause a massive shock.
How do we think the fight will go?
Chisora's engine is undoubtedly one of his finest assets and we believe he'll come out all guns blazing early on and try to put it on Usyk from the first bell. The former cruiserweight king is renowned for coasting the first few rounds to download data of his opponent so he can then start to outclass and outbox them the longer the fight goes.
However, this isn't just an average fighter we're talking about here. We're talking about one of the best fighters of all-time and if Usyk does get success with that jab early on in the fight and use his ring IQ to manoeuvre around the ring, he will frustrate Chisora and it will take unreal discipline from the Brit to stick to his game plan if every time he sets up an attack he gets popped with the jab from a variety of angles.
We're backing Oleksandr Usyk by decision or technical decision - claim this bet here at 5/4 and have it straight in your bet slip.
