Yuri Boyka vs. Black Widow: Who Wins?

Several fans might look at this matchup and laugh since Black Widow has taken on threats that Yuri Boyka would have never believed to be possible. And yet despite that, in a straight-up, head to head matchup, this would be a fairly even fight since the fact is that Boyka is an insanely skilled fighter Despite the vast distance between these two characters in terms of what they’ve experienced, it does feel that Boyka would be able to eke out a win if this fight happened in a manner that didn’t allow Natasha the chance to use her many different gadgets, since that would give her an edge. But in a way, this would be akin to putting a superspy in the ring with a gladiator…actually no, that’s very much what it would be since Boyka is, for all intents and purposes, a pit fighter. Putting Natasha in the ring with him or in a situation where she couldn’t run would give Boyka a serious advantage that would allow him to put a serious amount of hurt on her. There are ways that Natasha might gain an advantage though, and without her gadgets.

For one thing, Boyka might not take this fight seriously, to begin with, and might fall into the same trap that other men have when it comes to facing a woman that’s half their size. This means that Natasha would have a precious few opportunities in which to land a few impressive moves on Boyka, but that’s likely all she would get in such a situation. Many would argue that Natasha is a highly skilled and extremely deadly fighter that can take a person down in more ways than many can imagine. That’s all well and good, but Boyka is a guy that’s been fighting to survive and happens to be a fighter that’s so well-rounded that he change things up on the fly and barely breaks a sweat in the process. 

When calculating toughness it’s easy to state that Boyka has Natasha beaten in a few ways since he’s taken on some seriously tough individuals in his time. He hasn’t taken on the same type of villains in the past that Natasha has, but we’re not talking about them, we’re talking about Natasha and Boyka. Putting these two in a ring together, or even in the same space, for a deathmatch would be an insane but impressive fight that would stand a chance of going either way depending on how each combatant reacted. As mentioned, it might be that Boyka might not take Natasha seriously in the first few seconds, which would be enough for the Avenger to do the kind of damage that might make Boyka realize that underestimating her wouldn’t be a good idea. Of course, once that happened, if he was still standing he wouldn’t be taking her lightly any longer, and Natasha would find out that her training, exceptional as it is, might not be quite enough unless she can think of a way out of this fight. She might be able to deal with those that can’t match her in a standup fight and those that don’t have the same skill level, but Boyka is the type of fighter that can dismantle an opponent methodically and as brutally as possible. 

Giving this win to Boyka doesn’t mean that’s he’s capable of breaking down Natasha without fail, it simply means that he would be able to eke out a win by the time the fight was over and done with. It’s been seen that Natasha can take out Hawkeye and hold her own with several other individuals that should have her outmatched quite easily. But once again, this is Boyka, and while that doesn’t mean much of anything to a lot of people, Yuri is fully capable of taking on someone like Black Widow and walking away with a win. The toughness, both physical and mental, that he possesses is enough to withstand most of what Natasha could put him through, but it’s easy to think that a few heavy hits from Boyka are going to leave Natasha winded and even incapable of returning a solid offense if she can’t find a way to deliver a heavy enough blow that might put Boyka on his heels. 

Even a repeated shot to the groin would be iffy when taking on Boyka since he’s taken hits that might have dropped a couple of her fellow Avengers without fail, and he’s kept going. Boyka is the kind of fighter that thrives on pain and is ready to keep going on sheer grit when others might succumb to their injuries. It wouldn’t be an easy fight for either one of them, but it would be one that would be fun to choreograph since the sheer athleticism that both combatants bring to the table would be enough to make this fight tough to follow at times.