There is nothing in boxing that Oleksandr Usyk hasn’t won.
He unified all four major world titles to become the undisputed world champion at cruiserweight.
The Ukrainian accomplished the same feat at heavyweight. When he overcame Britain’s towering Tyson Fury in their first fight in May, he brought together, albeit briefly, the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF championships.
That made him the first undisputed heavyweight champion in the 25 years since Lennox Lewis’ reign, and the first of the four-belt era.
He has never lost a professional fight.
Go back to his amateur career and he won Olympic gold, as well as World Championship and European Championship gold medals.
Usyk visits a devastated energy plant in central Ukraine (Photo: DTEK)
But there is one dream he believes he will never be able to realise. He doesn’t think he’ll ever get to fight in his home country as a world champion.
The 38-year-old Usyk doesn’t believe the war will have stabilised in his country before he has to retire from the sport.
“Now I think it’s not possible,” he told Sky Sports. “Russia fights with Ukraine, a lot of rockets. I speak with my daughter, 14 years old. ‘Hey, how are you?’ ‘Oh Papa, this night was terrible.’
“My family can live in a bomb shelter, I have [that]. ‘Hey Papa, today I go to bomb shelter, oh my God I’m afraid.’ I said: ‘Hey listen, don’t worry please, tomorrow I go home.’
“Listen, I think it’s a big problem, a lot.”
Usyk campaigns to support Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure in the ‘Fight for Light’ (Photo: DTEK)
Usyk’s boxing career surely carries the most political significance of any heavyweight champion since Muhammad Ali. (Usyk also happens to have the same birthday as “The Greatest,” January 17.)
When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, Usyk enlisted in the Territorial Defence Force in his homeland. Since resuming his boxing career, he’s sought to represent Ukraine.
He’s not only carried Ukraine’s flag and symbols in the ring, but he’s also lent his authority to specific campaigns.
Over the course of his monumental title clashes with Tyson Fury, he was supporting DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company and their ‘Fight for Light’.
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Oleksandr Usyk wore a traditional Ukrainian outfit and entered the arena to his trademark anthem in Riyadh.
“It’s not a sponsorship contract, it’s just collaboration. It’s our joint fight for Ukraine so in Ukraine we keep lights on,” DTEK CEO, Maxim Timchenko told Sky Sports. “He’s our key ambassador of this campaign.
“We are in the middle of this energy war,” he continued. “The whole country and millions of people depend on how we operate, how we can protect ourselves, how we can restore power generation how quickly we can react to these massive damages we get since 2022.
“Of course, to stay alive and keep lights on in Ukraine we need external support. With such challenges and such destruction, none of the companies can cope alone.
“We use all means to deliver this message, to tell about the situation in the Ukrainian energy sector and energy infrastructure, to show how Russians destroy civil infrastructure. It’s nothing related to military frontline or military equipment… They destroy civil infrastructure so that millions of people stay without electricity and light and heat.”
Just this week, Usyk visited a devastated energy plant in central Ukraine to speak to workers and highlight the struggle the sector is facing.
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Oleksandr Usyk used his scintillating boxing skills to beat Tyson Fury on the judges’ scorecards and retain his heavyweight world titles.
“The commercial part was not a key decision factor for him to agree on this cooperation,” Timchenko said. “He sees 55,000 people working for our company, how they fight and how important that we win this fight.
“Every day that we’re going through is another fight,” he noted, especially in the harsh Ukrainian winter. “So the country is not plunged into darkness. That’s what we call victory.”
Usyk’s involvement has “had a huge impact in Ukraine”.
“The whole country knows the company 1742628593,” Timchenko said. “What was important for me was our international partners were also aware of this fight.
“To appeal to our partners, our donors, other energy companies, explain what is happening in Ukraine and what kind of support we need.”
Usyk had the DTEK brand emblazoned on his in fights with Fury and spent time with the veterans of the war, now employed by the company, who’d been brought to support him in those championship bouts.
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Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk engaged in an intense eleven minute staredown which had to be broken up ahead of their rematch.
Taking on Fury to decide the best heavyweight in the world was the most important fight of his life. But the day before both of those Fury bouts, Usyk was with those former soldiers.
“He’s a very, very open, simple guy. He is a legend already. People from our company, people who returned from the frontline, they see this guy who is well known to the whole world speak in very simple language about life experience, about families, about ordinary things, it was very important. I think it’s a memory for the rest of their lives,” Timchenko said.
“People say he’s our guy. He’s one of us. That’s most important, I think. People who have seen all this horrible war, they have faced death being on the frontline; some of them were a very short step to dying and they accept you and say that you’re one of us – it’s the greatest appreciation you could have from people who know what is real war.”
When it came to the boxing match itself, they were following every punch, every step and every swing of the action.
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Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk shared a final face-off ahead of their heavyweight blockbuster clash.
“You could be sitting in the arena and hear the voices of our veterans,” Timchenko added. “For the first fight, if you want to hear the voice of Ukraine it was from our veterans, they were the most active supporters in the fight.”
Usyk’s victories in the ring mattered.
“It’s very symbolic that there can, in some way, be a comparison with our fight in Ukraine. That somebody smaller, smarter with a big heart can defeat somebody larger. That’s basically something that can be translated and made parallel with what is happening in Ukraine,” Timchenko said. “His victory is also very symbolic.”
The fighter himself doesn’t dwell too much on what he’s accomplished in the sport.
“Boxing is my life. Maybe a lot of people [say:] ‘Oh yeah it’s a great legacy,” Usyk said. “I don’t think about it. Legacy. My legacy is my children. What I build, what I do now for Ukraine.”
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Oleksandr Usyk was accompanied by a live performance during his public workout for his rematch with Tyson Fury.
A small heavyweight, brilliantly skilled, ferociously committed to his training and with an indomitable will to win, Usyk today has become something larger than just an athlete.
“His achievement, it’s not only the achievement of him as a boxer, as a personality, it’s the achievement of Ukraine. That’s very important. We need to have more to be proud of,” Timchenko said.
“That achievement is very important for us as Ukrainians, fighting every day and such a great achievement, a historical achievement will stay forever in the history of boxing.
“That’s important and he will forever stay one of the heroes of Ukraine.”
