Oleksandr Usyk: Top Five Career Moments

usyk-top-five-moments

Quick, durable, powerful, agile and unorthodox... Oleksandr Usyk has the skills and attributes to give the world's finest fighters nightmares. Undefeated as a pro, Usyk unified the cruiserweight division, and is on track to do the same at heavyweight.

Usyk is widely regarded as one of boxings true pound-for-pound greats. We take a look at some of the key moments from this proud Ukranian's career.

2012 - Gold at London 2012

Having already won gold medals at European and World level as an amateur, Usyk arrived at the Olympic Games in London well-fancied for a medal. However, his performances in England's capital city during the summer of 2012 would show glimpses of a future global star.

Despite coming up against future pros Tervel Pulev, Clemente Russo and current World light-heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev, Usyk took home the gold medal.

Usyk went pro shortly after London 2012, leaving behind an emphatic 335-15 amateur record.

usyk-olympics

2014 - First Pro Title

Having joined the pro ranks at 26 years of age, Usyk signed with compatriots the Klitschko brothers' K2 promotion and made light work of his early fights.

If Usyk's exploits as an amateur hadn't already put the world's best paid cruiserweights on notice, a run of five straight knockout victories had the 200lb division on red alert.

And, true to form, Usyk claimed his first pro belt with a ninth round TKO victory over South Africa's Danie Venter to claim the WBO Inter-Continental Cruiserweight title.

2016 - WBO Cruiserweight Champion

Having built up a clean record of nine wins - all by way of knockout - in the pro ranks, Usyk found himself in a WBO World Cruiserweight Championship fight with then-undefeated Polish fighter, Krzysztof Głowacki.

Despite losing his KO streak, Usyk dominated the 12-round contest, thanks to his superior footwork and metronomic timing with his jab. Głowacki sustained a nasty cut early on in the bout, but fought through to hear the final bell, when the judges unanimously scored the fight in Usyk's favour.

2018 - Muhammad Ali Trophy

In 2015 it was announced that Usyk would be joining fellow cruiserweights Mairis Briedis, Murat Gassiev, Yuniel Dorticos, Marco Huck and Krzysztof Włodarczyk in an eight-man bracket style tournament for the World Boxing Super Series.

Knowing that the tournament's winning fighter would be crowned the first four-belt undisputed World Cruiserweight Champion, Usyk selected Marco Huck as his first round opponent at a draft gala event in Monaco.

Usyk showed another dominant performance against Huck, when they eventually met in 2017, with the referee stopping the contest in the tenth round. This set up a semi-final showdown with the then-undefeated Mairis Briedis.

In what was one of the greatest cruiserweight contests in recent memory, Usyk battled to a split decision win over Briedis, with one judge scoring the fight as a draw. Usyk would later admit that it was the hardest fight of his career at that time.

In the WBSS final, Usyk met Russian-American fighter Murat Gassiev, in a grand final at Moscow's Olympic Stadium. The Ukranian dominated the 12-round bout, cruising to a unanimous points victory in his opponent's back yard.

Having won the tournament, Usyk was presented with the iconic Muhammad Ali trophy by Ali's widow, Lonnie Ali. Usyk was now the first man in history to be the simultaneous WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF Cruiserweight World Champion.

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2021 - Unified World Heavyweight Champion

After defending the undisputed Cruiserweight Championship with a knockout victory over Tony Bellew, Usyk decided to move up to Heavyweight, with the view of replicating his achievements at Cruiserweight.

With wins over Chazz Witherspoon and Derek Chisora, Usyk set up a Heavyweight Championship fight against Anthony Joshua.

With the IBF, WBO, WBC and IBO titles on the line at the first ever boxing bout at London's new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Usyk outboxed Anthony Joshua to command another unanimous points victory on his opponent's home turf.

Usyk has subsequently defended his titles with a split decision victory over Joshua in a rematch that took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and is looking to become the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World by claiming the WBC strap, currently held by Tyson Fury.

Oleksandr Usyk's storied career has been immortalised by Dosbrak and Blockasset, with a collection of 500 individual digital collectibles. The Oleksandr Usyk collection was a collaboration between Usyk, his Usyk Foundation and Blockasset to raise funds to help with humanitarian efforts brought about by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.




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