Teddy Atlas thinks there is one man who would give Oleksandr Usyk a suitable challenge in his final fight.
Usyk has been almost untouchable throughout his whole boxing career, from the amateur ranks where he won an Olympic Gold medal, right through the professional game,
In just 24 fights, he has cleaned out the cruiserweight division to become the undisputed champion and then moved up to heavyweight to do the same, not once, but twice, and is the first man to ever do that in the four-belt era after beating the likes of Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois and Tyson Fury, all twice.
He is now 38-years-old and nearing the end of his career and speaking to OLGB.com, legendary trainer-turned-analyst Atlas named the one man he thinks would make a perfect final opponent for the pound-for-pound great.
“He’s been like a machine. The Olympics, consolidating all the cruiserweight titles, all the wins. Winning the heavyweight title. But now that you know that you’re coming towards the end, he may wanna do it a little differently, outside just the regular realm.
“And part of that is to fight [Alex] Pereira. Pereira, he’s not a traditional boxer, he’s a big name, he’s a scary guy, he’s thought of as a sort of boogeyman in his field, of the UFC, of MMA. What better way to finish up?”
Pereira is a Brazilian MMA star – a two-time UFC light heavyweight champion and former middleweight champion, so would present a very different challenge for Usyk, who now also has his WBO mandatory Fabio Wardley to deal with if he wants to keep hold of all his belts. He has expressed an interest in switching to boxing, though signed an eight-fight contract with the UFC in February 0f 2024, three of which remain.
