Oleksandr Usyk is one of the best fighters of his generation, but he will not be around for too much longer.
The Ukrainian has achieved more in the boxing ring than any of his current peers. His amateur career ended with a Gold medal at the London Olympics and, within six years of that, he had cleaned out the cruiserweight division to become a four belt undisputed champion.
Matching previous stars like Evander Holyfield and David Haye, he then moved up to heavyweight to become a world title holder but went one further than Haye and equalled Holyfield by also claiming the undisputed title in the banner division.
Marquee wins came against Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois, Murat Gassiev and Mairis Briedis, and the only thing left for him now to achieve is, in his own word, to become a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion.
Speaking to Al Arabiya, Usyk laid out his plan for retirement and admitted he has just two contests left.
“At the moment I don’t know who my opponents are going to be but yes [I stand by that]. I have two fights to go in my unbelievable journey. Listen, for over 20 years no one could organise an undisputed fight, Saudi Arabia did it, His Excellency has done it and they can do it again. Fans want to see the fight very much.”
Standing in his way of his one remaining goal is Dubois, the current IBF world champion whom Usyk already beat. Their fight in August 2023 ended with Usyk stopping ‘DDD’ in the 9th round, though he was down for some time with what was ruled to be a low blow earlier in the contest.
