Is Oleksandr Usyk the best boxer of heavyweights today?
Oleksandr Usyk is considered one of today’s greatest boxers. Still unbeaten, Oleksandr recently defeated the giants of the maximum weights of boxing such as Anthony Joshua (twice), Daniel Dubois and Tyson Fury (twice). While it is still relatively new in the division of maximum weights compared to its contemporaries, many consider Oleksandr Usyk as one of the few worthy of following in the footsteps of its compatriots, the legendary Klitschko brothers. In this article, we will talk about why Oleksandr Usyk is the best boxer of the heavyweights today.
Oleksandr Usyk’s Background
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iadvss77rrs
Usyk was born on January 17, 1987 to parents who both originated from northern Ukraine. Usyk is the first child of the family and has two brothers. Initially he played football until the age of 15 and was trained in a sports school for Olympic reserves in Ukraine before moving on to boxing in 2002. Usyk later he graduated from the Lviv State University of Physical Culture in Ukraine.
The boxers of his region are known for their exceptional amateur boxing style. Usykk had an excellent record of 335-15 in his amateur career before becoming a professional. It is an Olympic gold medal (London 2012 Olympics), a gold and bronze medal of the world championship (Baku 2011 and Milan 2009), gold medal and European bronze (2008 Liverpool and 2006 Plovdiv) and a silver medal in the 2008 boxing World Cup in Mosco.
In the 2006 European championships, Usyk won three games but was not short in the semifinal as a average weight. Consequently, he decided to move on to the light weight, winning the Strandzha Cup (an international amateur boxing tournament held in Bulgaria every year) in 2008. Two months later, in 2008, he moved again to the division of the heavyweight to fight for his Olympic point.
In the 2008 Olympics, Usyk was short in the quarterfinals, returned lightly and won the 2008 European championship after defeating Artur Beterbiev and Teymur Mammadov to claim the title and qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. Usyk won the gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games after beating once again Artur Beterbiev in the quarterfinals in the quarterfinals Final, Tervel Pulev in the semifinal and Clemente Russo in the final.
Before becoming a professional, Usyk fought in the division of the maximum weights of the World Series of Boxing (WSB) from 2012 to 2013 under the Ukrainian team. He won all his attacks, two by stop. Usyk is a devotee Orthodox Christian who is now married to four children. Outside the boxing, Usyk also trained in various martial arts, such as Sambo, Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Alongside other global boxing figures such as Vasile Lomachenko, in February 2022, Oleksandr Usyk also returned to Ukrainian and took part in support efforts. In about two months, Usyk was allowed to leave his country and train for revenge with Anthony Joshua.
Although initially reluctant to leave, Usyk received support from those around him, encouraging him to focus on representing his nation on the international stage. After fulfilling his functions, he returned to the boxing ring and successfully defended his title against Anthony Joshua.
Climbing the boxing rankings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbemgxyyp98
Usyk became a professional at 26 years old at the end of 2013, fighting in the Cruiserweight division after signing a promotional agreement with K2, a promotion owned by the Klitschko brothers. In November 2013 he made his debut against Felipe Romero, a Mexican fighter with whom he won through TKO. After four professional boxing victories, he won the title of WBO intercontinental cruiser in 2014 and the title of WBO intercontinental cruiser two months later.
To prepare for the boxing level worldwide, Usyk defended the title of WBO Intercontinental Cruiserweight four times before winning the WBO Cruiserweight title against Krzysztof Glowacki in September 2016 to improve its 10-0 record. He defended the title of WBO Cruiserweight twice before putting it in line for the World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) in 2017. During the WBSS series (2017-2018), he defeated Marco Huck, Mairis Briedis and Murat Gassiev to collect WBO, WBA (Super), WBC, IBF and weights of weights.
Before moving to the heavyweights in 2019, Usyk defended his four important cruiser titles sanctioned against Tony Below in 2018. While he was still young in his professional career of maximum weight boxes compared to other maximum weights, Usyk has already shown his boxing ability with victories against the giants of today’s maximum weights. In 2020, he won the title of the heavy intercontinental WBO weights against Derek Chisora, demonstrating that he is worthy of becoming a world -level sluts of heavyweights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lh1xalabhq
In 2021, Usyk had the most significant challenge in his professional boxing career against Anthony Joshua. Joshua is a maximum weight boxing superstar and the favorite fighter in their game. Despite being the loser, Usyk challenged the chances and won the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO Heavyweight titles of Anthony Joshua. After coming from the patriotic duties of his country, Usyk remained at the top again and has maintained his three heavy belts of the sanctioned body (WBA, IBF and WBO) in their revenge in August 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hvcbkxxtxc
Usyk faced Daniel Dubois in August 2023 and defended the belts against the young and hungry fighter. Usyk faced Tyson Fury for the title of the WBC maximum weights in 2024 to unify all the bodies of the title sanctioned by boxing. In their first meeting, Usyk won with a divided decision to unify all belts. Trying to solve the score, the two had their revenge in December 2024, with Usyk who won for a unanimous decision to keep his maximum weight securities.
Today, Oleksandr Usyk has become the undisputed champion in the cruiserweight divisions (200 pounds) and maximum weights (over 200 pounds) in the four main boxing sanction organs, that is to say the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Organization (WBO) and Federation International Boxing (IBF). With a record of 23-0, 14 of which due to the Knockout, Usyk is considered the number one boxing pound per pound.
What is the future for Usyk?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3qeia01cuc
In the meantime, the division of maximum weight boxing will have to solve it and the boxers will have to fight for their place to challenge USYK for the different belts of the title of the maximum weights. The undisputed champion of the maximum weights, Usyk, is trying to fight the young contender, Daniel Dubois, if he wins his next fight. Usyk has also made fun of the fact that he could return to Cruiserweight and, in this case, Jai Opetaia can be a possible match-up. In the maximum weights, the young British Moses Itauma hopes to beat Mike Tyson’s record of being the youngest champion of the maximum weights.
Conclusion
After Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue, Oleksandr Usyk is the third male boxer in history to become an undisputed champion in two weight classes in the four belts era. Usyk is an excellent symbol of faith, courage, humility, perseverance and patriotism that future generations can look. Based on his successes inside and outside the boxing arena, Usyk is undoubtedly the best boxer of the heavyweights today.
You may also like it:
Defensive strategies in boxing: the art of success and are not affected
