Oleksandr Usyk: Proud WBC Champion

Oleksandr Usyk is a natural athlete, who took to Boxing like a duck to water.

Born on January 17, 1987 in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine, Usyk initially gravitated towards soccer at  which he showed considerable agility, prowess and appitude.

However, at the age of 15, he decided to change course and entered the world of boxing. Every clause of his amateur career was truly outstanding, accumulating a total of 350 fights. But the crowning moment came at the 2012 London Olympics, where he won the gold medal in the heavyweight category. This achievement marked a turning point in his life, and he decided to make the leap to professionalism.

Oleksandr Usyk debuted as a professional boxer in November 2013 and has since maintained an impressive undefeated record. With a total of 22 fights, he has achieved 22 victories, of which 14 have been by knockout.

In 2018, Usyk won the famous World Boxing Super Series tournament that featured all the world cruiserweight champions as well as great exponents. Usyk defeated Marco Huck, Mairis Briedis and Murat Gassiev, to become undisputed cruiserweight champion.

After moving up a division to heavyweight, in 2021 he had his big opportunity when he faced former champion Anthony Joshua, defeating him by decision to become WBO, WBA and IBF world champion, before 70,000 fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England.

Usyk who is nicknamed ”The Cat”  always expressed his desire to win the Green and Gold WBC Belt in the heavyweight division, as it was the last belt…the final piece of the jigsaw, that he needed to become undisputed champion. He also admires the WBC, which in its turn greatly admires him.

He achieved this goal on May 18 by defeating Tyson Fury by decision at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Fury found success in the early rounds, corralling and controlling Usyk with sweeping  right hands, uppercuts and body shots. But Usyk surprised Fury with a big left hook  in the ninth round.  Having seemingly used up almost as many lives as a cat,  Usyk cut loose and went on the offensive. He sent Fury  reeling against the ropes. A series of subsequent powerful punches, punctuated by more high-angle left hands, had  Fury reeling into a neutral corner. Referee Mark Nelson called it a knockdown, and gave Fury a standing eight count. Fury cautiously recovered and then  the bell rang to end the round.

But the tide had turned. Usyk was applying unrelenting pressure, picking up the pace against the giant, winning rounds 10 and 11 on two of the scorecards to secure the victory.

We congratulate Oleksandr Usyk for his great career and above all for demeanor and deportment.