“It’s a great time. It’s a great day,” said [Oleksandr] Usyk who is 6 inches shorter than the 6-foot-9 Fury, and weighed in 30 pounds lighter. “Thank you so much to my team,” Usyk said, fighting back tears. “It’s a big opportunity for me, for my family, for my country. Slava Ukraini!“
Fury kissed Usyk on the head after the final bell, and Usyk hugged Fury several moments after the decision was read.
Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Usyk (Ukrainian: Олександр Олександрович Усик; born 17 January 1987) is a Ukrainian professional boxer. He is the undisputed heavyweight champion, holding the WBA (Super), IBF and WBO titles since 2021, the Ring magazine title since 2022, and the WBC title since 2024. Previously, he held the undisputed cruiserweight championship from 2018 to 2019. In both the heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions, he is the first boxer to hold all four major world titles.
Usyk was born in Simferopol, Crimean Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union on 17 January 1987, to parents originally from northern Ukraine. His mother was born in the Chernihiv region (in the village of Rybotyn, Korop Raion), while his father was a native of Sumy. His mother worked in construction and moved to Simferopol to study.
The world is a complicated place, and Usyk has evolved in his thinking…. Interesting article from The Guardian, and an interesting intersection with Usyk and the Ukrainian Orthodox church.
Ukrainians divided over Usyk, the world boxing champion facing Tyson Fury
The former cruiserweight, who fights the Briton Tyson Fury for the undisputed heavyweight championship in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night, has been an active fundraiser for the Ukrainian military and humanitarian causes since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. His success in the ring is a matter of considerable national pride….
“But before the full-scale invasion Usyk said and did some things to underline his friendship with Russia and it was disappointing. Even if I don’t expect anything, he has a huge fanbase and he should feel responsibility for his words and actions in a country partly occupied by Russia.”…
But he has also drawn criticism in the past for seemingly Russia-leaning sympathies – mostly relating to his attachment to the Ukrainian Orthodox church, a branch of the Orthodox communion loyal to the Moscow patriarchate.
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox church, is one of Vladimir Putin’s most strident cheerleaders, and the notion of shared faith is key to the Russian president’s claim that Ukraine and Russia are indivisible….
Nevertheless, added Hlazunova, since February 2022 “he has shown support for our country and our army – and that is what matters most for me. He is a champion and a good citizen and I wish him luck.”….
Usyk quickly joined his local territorial defence group in Kyiv, while the city was bombarded and threatened by encirclement. The following month, he received permission to leave Ukraine and train for his match with Anthony Joshua in August 2022 – for which he wore a traditional Cossack hairstyle, and afterwards raised the Ukrainian blue-and-yellow flag in victory.
His charity, the Usyk Foundation, has raised $740,000 for the Ukrainian armed forces, according to its website.
Their houses were destroyed in the war. Now boxer Oleksandr Usyk is helping Ukrainian families move back home
Living with her parents and sister, Savenok was conscious that cramming six people in one house wasn’t a long-term option.
It’s why, Savenok says, she cried tears of joy after hearing about a new project to rebuild her family home.
Earlier this year, UNITED 24 – an organization set up by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with the aim of raising funds for Ukraine – announced it was launching a fundraising effort to rebuild apartment blocks in the Kyiv region.
The initiative was designed to help 4,237 Ukrainians return to their homes.
World boxing champion and UNITED24 ambassador Oleksandr Usyk has fronted the campaign and has taken particular notice of Savenok’s apartment block in Irpin.
The heavyweight, who has used his global platform to raise awareness of the war since it began, knew a friend, Oleksiy Dzhunkivskyy, who worked in the boxing gym at the bottom of the apartment block.
Usyk told CNN Sport that his friend, who taught children how to box, was killed by Russian forces as he tried to defend the studio and that his own family home is not far from where the apartment block is located.
“I am motivated by the idea that I must help my nation, my people,” Usyk told CNN Sport. “If I have the abilities, if I have strength to do that, if I can do it.”
“God has given me this chance to be on TV, to be, thanks to God, known in the world of sports.
Savenok doesn’t know when she will be able to go back to the apartment block, but she and her daughters have visited the shell of their home.
As they looked around they noticed a butterfly resting by one of the burnt out walls in the apartment. Its wings were singed, presumably from the fire.
It was a sign, the family said, that despite the wounds of war, normal life might yet reemerge in Ukraine in the future.
Oleksandr Usyk was born in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine on January 17th, 1987
Simferopol, also known as Aqmescit, is the second-largest city on the Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, and is considered the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, but currently is under the de facto control of Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014 and regards Simferopol as the capital of the Republic of Crimea.
Simferopol is an important political, economic and transport hub of the peninsula, and serves as the administrative centre of both Simferopol Municipality and the surrounding Simferopol District. Its population was 332,317 (2014 Census).
