As the current best heavyweight on the planet, Oleksandr Usyk has earned the right to comment on all other fighters in his division.

One man the Ukrainian has not yet fought in his short but successful journey through the divisions and to the undisputed title is Deontay Wilder. Instead, he has beaten the likes of Daniel Dubois, Anthony Joshua twice and most recently the former WBC and lineal champion Tyson Fury, whose title he added to his own WBA, WBO and IBF crowns out in Saudi Arabia in mid-May.

During much of that time in the banner division, Wilder has been tailing off from where he once was. The former WBC champion built up a fine reputation for heavy hitting by claiming all but one of his victories by knockout. Then he had a trilogy with Fury which saw him draw once and lose twice and since then, apart from a first-round blow-out of Robert Helenius, he has been far from his best.

His last two fights have been against Joseph Parker – a 12-round points loss in December, and Zhilei Zhang, who stopped him in the fifth round on the Queensberry vs Matchroom card on June 1st.

Many now believe given his reticence to pull the trigger it might well be time for ‘The Bronze Bomber’ to hang up his gloves.

Usyk is someone who agrees. Speaking on The 3 Knockdown Rule he has asked about Zhang’s performance against Wilder and didn’t pull punches with his assessment of the American’s boxing future.

“Good fight but I think Deontay is finished. No concentration. No focus for boxing. It’s bad. If you don’t have concentration for boxing it’s dangerous.”

Usyk is expected to be next out in December when he rematches Fury while Wilder’s coach has spoken of how bad the loss was for his man.