THE HARDEST JUMP

EVANDER HOLYFIELD

THE only cruiserweight champion to make the leap into the heavyweight division and truly conquer it. His achievements don’t need spelling out again here, but – like Usyk is fully expecting to – he made a mockery of supposedly being too small, despite this accusation being levelled at him by almost every boxing hack for the opening five years of his heavyweight career.

Only when he regained the title against Riddick Bowe did those critics quieten down. It took even longer, until the 1996 victory over Mike