Oleksandr Usyk: From Simferopol and London 2012 Gold to Undisputed at Cruiserweight and Heavyweight

Oleksandr Usyk grew up kicking a football in Crimea, danced a Cossack hopak in the London Olympic ring, unified every cruiserweight belt on the road, and then walked into the heavyweight division to beat Anthony Joshua twice, Tyson Fury twice and Daniel Dubois twice. By mid-2026 the southpaw from Simferopol was 25-0, had held the undisputed heavyweight title on two separate occasions, and had begun giving the belts away in search of one final fight.

A Football Kid From Simferopol

Usyk was born on January 17, 1987, in Simferopol, Crimea, then part of the Soviet Union. He was the eldest of three children. His father, originally from the Sumy region, had served as a Soviet officer in Afghanistan, and his mother came from the Chernihiv area. As a boy he went into folk dancing, including the acrobatic hopak, and into football; he trained in the youth academy of the local club Tavriya Simferopol until he was about 15.

Boxing came relatively late. He switched sports in 2002, and his early years were interrupted by a serious bout of pneumonia that kept him in hospital for two months during his schooling. He later graduated from the Lviv State University of Physical Culture.

The Amateur Climb and a Hopak in London

He took bronze at the 2006 European Championships at middleweight, won European gold at light heavyweight in 2008, and moved up to heavyweight, collecting bronze at the 2009 World Championships. In 2011 in Baku he became world amateur heavyweight champion, beating Russia's Artur Beterbiev and Azerbaijan's Teymur Mammadov along the way.

The peak came at the 2012 London Olympics. Usyk again got past Beterbiev, then Bulgaria's Tervel Pulev, and in the final he met Italy's Clemente Russo, the silver medallist from Beijing four years earlier. Usyk won 14-11 to take Ukraine's first boxing gold of those Games, and Russo left with a second straight Olympic silver. He celebrated with a full hopak in the ring, crouching and leaping with his single lock of hair flying. His amateur record is listed as 335 wins and 15 losses.

Gdansk 2016: Taking the WBO Cruiserweight Belt

Usyk turned professional on November 9, 2013, stopping Felipe Romero in five rounds, and chose cruiserweight rather than heavyweight. Within three years he was ready for a world title. On September 17, 2016, in Gdansk, Poland, he faced the home fighter Krzysztof Glowacki, unbeaten at 26-0 and holder of the WBO title. Usyk outboxed him from start to finish and won a unanimous decision by scores of 119-109, 117-111 and 117-111.

He followed it by stopping Thabiso Mchunu in the ninth round in Inglewood, California, in December 2016, and outpointing Michael Hunter in Maryland in April 2017.

The World Boxing Super Series and the First Undisputed Crown

In 2017 Usyk entered the cruiserweight edition of the World Boxing Super Series. He stopped the veteran Marco Huck in the tenth round in Berlin in September 2017. The semi-final, in Riga in January 2018 against Latvia's Mairis Briedis, was far harder: Usyk won only a majority decision, 115-113, 115-113 and 114-114, in what he called the toughest fight of his career to that point.

The final took place on July 21, 2018, at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow against Russia's Murat Gassiev. Usyk won a unanimous decision by 120-108, 119-109 and 119-109, and became the first cruiserweight to hold all four major sanctioning-body titles at once. Usyk defended the full set only once: on November 10, 2018, at Manchester Arena, he stopped Britain's Tony Bellew in the eighth round, and Bellew retired afterwards. The Ring magazine named Usyk its Fighter of the Year for 2018.

Up to Heavyweight: Witherspoon, Chisora and the Joshua Upset

Usyk moved up in October 2019, forcing Chazz Witherspoon to retire after seven rounds in Chicago. A year later at Wembley's SSE Arena he outpointed Derek Chisora, who outweighed him by around 38 pounds, by scores of 117-112, 115-113 and 115-113.

His third heavyweight fight was for the WBA, IBF and WBO titles held by Anthony Joshua. On September 25, 2021, before 66,267 fans at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Usyk's speed and southpaw angles left Joshua's right eye swollen. In the twelfth round he had the champion staggering on the ropes at the final bell. The judges scored it 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113.

Five months later Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Usyk returned home and joined a territorial defence battalion, telling CNN in March 2022 that his country and his honour mattered more to him than a championship belt. He later left to prepare for the Joshua rematch, held on August 20, 2022, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Usyk won a split decision, two judges scoring it 115-113 for him and the third 115-113 for Joshua.

Wroclaw, Riyadh and Two Wins Over Tyson Fury

A mandatory defence against Daniel Dubois on August 26, 2023, in Wroclaw, Poland, produced the first real controversy of his heavyweight run. In the fifth round Usyk went down from a body shot that the referee ruled low, giving him time to recover, and Dubois's team protested. Usyk recovered and finished the fight in the ninth round, when Dubois was counted out.

The fight that defined his era was against Tyson Fury. They met at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh on May 18, 2024, with the result coming in the early hours of May 19 local time. Usyk was about six inches shorter and 30 pounds lighter. In the ninth, a Usyk left sent Fury reeling into a corner, and the referee gave Fury a standing count before the bell. The scorecards read 115-112 and 114-113 for Usyk and 114-113 for Fury. With the split decision, Usyk became the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999-2000. A month later he gave up the IBF belt, clearing the way for that body to fill its title with a Joshua-Dubois fight.

The rematch, at the same arena on December 21, 2024, was clearer. Usyk took a unanimous decision with all three judges scoring 116-112, and he ended the year as The Ring's Fighter of the Year and the Boxing Writers Association of America's Sugar Ray Robinson Award winner.

Wembley 2025 and the Second Undisputed Reign

On July 19, 2025, Usyk met Dubois again, this time with Dubois holding the IBF belt, in front of roughly 90,000 people at Wembley Stadium. In the fifth round Usyk floored him with a right hand and, after Dubois rose, finished him with a short left; the end came at 1:52 of the round. At 38 he was undisputed for a second time, joking afterwards that 38 was only the start.

Giving Up the Belts and Chasing a Last Dance

The second undisputed reign did not last long. In November 2025 Usyk relinquished the WBO title rather than face its mandatory challenger, and the WBO elevated Britain's Fabio Wardley to full champion; Usyk's camp described the move as a respectful pause rather than a farewell.

His next fight, in May 2026 in Giza, Egypt, against the Dutch kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven, was billed as a mismatch and nearly became an upset. Reports differ slightly on the calendar date, with Reuters giving Saturday, May 23, and Sky Sports listing Sunday, May 24. According to scorecards published by The Ring, two judges had the fight level at 95-95 after ten rounds and the third had Verhoeven ahead 96-94. With one second left in the eleventh, Usyk dropped Verhoeven with a right uppercut, and the referee waved it off after Verhoeven had beaten the count, a stoppage Verhoeven questioned. He was now 25-0 with 16 knockouts.

On June 26, 2026, Usyk announced he was vacating his WBA, WBC and IBF titles while making clear he was not retiring. Sources disagree on whether the move included The Ring's championship: The Ring itself reported that he kept its belt, while other outlets listed it among the titles he gave up. Agit Kabayel, the WBC's interim champion and mandatory challenger, was elevated to full champion the next day. Usyk said he wanted one more fight, which he called his last dance. In July his team director Sergey Lapin confirmed talks with Zuffa Boxing about a farewell bout against Deontay Wilder in the United States, adding that nothing had been signed. Later reports suggested March 2027 in Las Vegas as a target, but as of this writing no date or venue has been confirmed.

Sources

• Oleksandr Usyk, Wikipedia (accessed October 2026)
• Ukraine's Usyk dances his way to gold, Kyiv Post, August 12, 2012
• Usyk ends Joshua's reign as heavyweight champ, Associated Press (via News4JAX), September 25, 2021
• Oleksandr Usyk beats Tyson Fury by split decision to become the undisputed heavyweight champion, Associated Press (via News4JAX), May 18, 2024
• Usyk knocks out Dubois to become undisputed heavyweight champion, Al Jazeera, July 19, 2025
• Boxe : Usyk abandonne sa ceinture WBO, Orange Sports, November 18, 2025
• Usyk avoids shock defeat with 11th round stoppage of Verhoeven, Reuters (via Khaleej Times and others), May 2026
• Oleksandr Usyk stops Rico Verhoeven to defend WBC heavyweight title, Sky Sports, May 2026
• Oleksandr Usyk vacates world heavyweight titles but isn't retiring, The Ring, June 26, 2026
• WBC elevates Agit Kabayel to full heavyweight champion, The Ring, June 27, 2026
• Ukrainian boxer Usyk decides to vacate all his world titles, Ukrainska Pravda, June 26, 2026
• Oleksandr Usyk in talks for farewell fight against Deontay Wilder, Geo Super, July 3, 2026
• Usyk seeks 'dangerous' Wilder, The Ring, August 1, 2026