While renowned as one of the greatest modern technicians, Oleksandr Usyk has named another active fighter as having the best technique.
As a pure boxer himself, the Ukrainian can identify technical brilliance in a way that others perhaps cannot, given his wealth of experience in facing different styles.
During his distinguished amateur career, for instance, he came up against the world’s elite and, as a professional, his appetite for a legacy-defining challenge has been no different.
First came his run at cruiserweight, where a dominant points victory over the hard-hitting Murat Gassiev followed his majority-decision squeaker against a savvy Mairis Briedis.
Then, at heavyweight, Usyk became a three-time, two-division undisputed king while claiming two respective wins over Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois.
But while the 39-year-old has showcased his skills against a plethora of styles, he ultimately regards Shakur Stevenson, another southpaw, as the greatest current technician in boxing.
As the 10-years-younger man, Stevenson is not only in the thick of his prime but has also become a four-division world champion.
In doing so, he has hardly even broken as much as a sweat, with his closest fights resulting in unanimous decision victories over William Zepeda and Edwin De Los Santos.
As a result, Usyk unsurprisingly thinks highly of the outrageously skilled American, telling DAZN that he believes Stevenson has the most refined technique of any active fighter.
And while others might put the likes of Dmitry Bivol and Devin Haney in that same conversation, it is difficult to argue with Stevenson, a top five pound-for-pound star, being regarded as the very best.
