Oleksandr Usyk says he conquered heavyweight, but anyone watching him lumber around the ring with Rico Verhoeven knows the truth. Getting roughed up and looking ancient against a kickboxer with one professional boxing match exposed the reality.

Usyk’s sudden urge to drop to cruiserweight for David Benavidez looks like a foxhole to hide in before a dangerous heavyweight exposes how much he’s slipped. The heavyweight division is teeming with hungry sharks like Moses Itauma, Daniel Dubois, and Filip Hrgovic, all eager to rip the aging Usyk apart. Everyone gets old, and it’s painfully obvious that’s what’s happening to Usyk.

“I clean up the heavyweight [division] and back at my weight,” Usyk claimed on DAZN during the Canelo Alvarez fight against Christian Mbilli. Setting up a Benavidez clash at 200 pounds for 2027 sounds ambitious on paper. Benavidez holds two belts and takes on Michal Cieslak for a third on December 5. In reality, it gives Usyk a massive payday against a blown-up super middleweight while dodging the heavyweight killers circling him.

Carrying a career-high 233¼ pounds, Usyk looked every ounce of that extra bulk against Verhoeven. The fleet-footed movement that once defined him vanished, replaced by flat-footed, labored exchanges where a boxing novice dictated the action. Rescuing an eleventh-round stoppage after Verhoeven ran out of air fooled nobody. The division saw a fading champion whose legs are abandoning him.

Hrgovic has the size to bludgeon Usyk from the opening bell and a punishing right hand to land when the Ukrainian hesitates inside the pocket. The speedy young gun Itauma would have too much hand speed for him. Usyk spent years outsmarting slower big men, but a vicious, fast young southpaw like Itauma would test reflexes that simply are not there anymore. Usyk would see the shots coming and lack the speed to evade them.

Dubois represents pure danger right now. Usyk can point to two past victories, but Dubois is running through people now. He’s made vast improvements in his game in the last two years. Those wins belong to an earlier era, not the diminished version of Usyk who got battered for stretches by Verhoeven. Putting that heavy, slowed Usyk in front of Dubois today gives Dubois endless opportunities to land knockout bombs.

Benavidez brings plenty of volume punching and relentless forward attacks, especially against a guy approaching 40 trying to shed over thirty pounds. Still, fighting Benavidez at 200 lets Usyk pick his terms against a naturally smaller man. Heavyweight is filled with natural giants who hit like trucks and would punish the same glaring defensive flaws Verhoeven revealed.

Usyk can say the division is cleared out, but the predators watching his last outing know he is running for cover to avoid taking a hit.

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