Is Oleksandr Usyk The Best Heavyweight Boxer Today?

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Summary

Oleksandr Usyk is considered one of the greatest boxers today. Still undefeated, Oleksandr has recently defeated boxing heavyweight giants like Anthony Joshua (twice), Daniel Dubois, and Tyson Fury (twice). While he’s still relatively new to the heavyweight division compared to his contemporaries, many regard Oleksandr Usyk as one of the few worthy to follow in the footsteps of his countrymen, the legendary Klitschko brothers. In this article, we’ll talk about why Oleksandr Usyk is the best heavyweight boxer today.

Key Takeaways

Oleksandr Usyk built a legendary amateur career with a 335–15 record and a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, establishing himself as one of Ukraine’s top boxing talents.

Usyk became the undisputed champion in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, defeating top fighters like Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, and Daniel Dubois.

With an undefeated 23–0 professional record, Usyk is widely regarded as one of the best boxers in the world today and continues to dominate the heavyweight division.

Oleksandr Usyk’s Background

Usyk was born on January 17, 1987, to parents who both originated from northern Ukraine. Usyk is the first child in the family and has two siblings. He originally played football until the age of 15 and was trained at a sports school for Olympic reserves in Ukraine before switching to boxing in 2002. Usyk later graduated from Lviv State University of Physical Culture in Ukraine.

Boxers from his region are known for their outstanding amateur style of boxing. Usykk had an excellent record of 335-15 in his amateur career before turning pro. He’s an Olympic gold medalist (2012 London Olympics), a World Championship gold and bronze medalist (2011 Baku and 2009 Milan), European Championship gold and bronze medalist (2008 Liverpool and 2006 Plovdiv), and a silver medalist in the Boxing World Cup 2008 in Moscow.

In the 2006 European Championships, Usyk won three matches but fell short in the semi-finals as a middleweight. As a result, he decided to move up to light-heavyweight, winning him the Strandzha Cup (an international amateur boxing tournament held in Bulgaria annually) gold in 2008. Two months later, in 2008, he moved again to the heavyweight division to fight for his Olympic spot.

In the 2008 Olympics, Usyk fell short in the quarter-finals, went back down to light-heavyweight, and won the 2008 European Championship after defeating Artur Beterbiev and Teymur Mammadov to claim the title and qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. Usyk won the gold medal in the 2012 Olympic Games after beating yet again Artur Beterbiev in the quarter-finals, Tervel Pulev in the semi-finals, and Clemente Russo in the finals.

Before turning pro, Usyk fought in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) heavyweight division from 2012 to 2013 under Team Ukraine. He won all his bouts, two by stoppage. Usyk is a devout Orthodox Christian who is now married with four children. Outside of boxing, Usyk also trained in various martial arts, such as Sambo, Judo, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Alongside other global boxing figures like Vasyl Lomachenko, In February 2022, Oleksandr Usyk also returned to Ukraine and took part in supporting efforts. In about two months, Usyk was given permission to leave his country and train for the rematch with Anthony Joshua.

Though initially reluctant to leave, Usyk received support from those around him, encouraging him to focus on representing his nation on the international stage. After fulfilling his duties, he returned to the boxing ring and successfully defended his title against Anthony Joshua.

Climbing Up The Boxing Rankings

Usyk turned pro at 26 in late 2013, fighting in the cruiserweight division after signing a promotional deal with K2, a Klitschko brothers-owned promotion. He debuted in November 2013 against Felipe Romero, a Mexican fighter with whom he won via TKO. After four professional boxing victories, he won the WBO interim Intercontinental Cruiserweight title in 2014 and the Undisputed WBO Intercontinental Cruiserweight title two months later.

To prepare for the world-level of boxing, Usyk defended the WBO Intercontinental cruiserweight title four times before winning the WBO Cruiserweight title against Krzysztof Glowacki in September 2016 to improved his record to 10-0. He defended the WBO Cruiserweight title two times before putting it on the line for the World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) in 2017. Throughout the WBSS series (2017-2018), he defeated Marco Huck, Mairis Briedis, and Murat Gassiev to gather the WBO, WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, and The Ring cruiserweight titles.

Before moving to heavyweight in 2019, Usyk defended his four major sanctioned cruiserweight titles against Tony Bellew in 2018. While still young in his professional heavyweight boxing career compared to other heavyweights, Usyk has already shown his boxing prowess with wins against today’s heavyweight giants. In 2020, he won the WBO Intercontinental heavyweight title against Derek Chisora, proving he’s worthy of becoming a world-class heavyweight boxer.

In 2021, Usyk had the most significant challenge in his professional boxing career against Anthony Joshua. Joshua is a heavyweight boxing superstar and the favorite fighter in their match-up. Despite being the underdog, Usyk defied the odds and won the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles from Anthony Joshua. After coming from his country’s patriotic duties, Usyk again remained on top and retained his three sanctioned body heavyweight belts (WBA, IBF, and WBO) in their rematch in August 2022.

Usyk faced Daniel Dubois in August 2023 and defended his belts against the young and hungry fighter. Usyk faced Tyson Fury for the WBC heavyweight title in 2024 to unify all the boxing-sanctioned title bodies. In their first meeting, Usyk won by a split decision to unify all the belts. Looking to settle the score, the two had their rematch in December 2024, with Usyk winning by unanimous decision to retain his heavyweight titles.

Today, Oleksandr Usyk has become the undisputed champion in the cruiserweight (200 lbs) and heavyweight (200+ lbs) divisions in the four major boxing-sanctioning bodies, namely the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Organization (WBO), and International Boxing Federation (IBF). With a record of 23-0, 14 of which by way of knockout, Usyk is considered the pound-for-pound number-one boxer today.

What’s Next For Usyk?

In the meantime, the heavyweight boxing division will have to sort itself out, and boxers will have to fight for their spot to challenge Usyk for the different heavyweight title belts. The undisputed heavyweight champion, Usyk, is looking to fight the young contender, Daniel Dubois, if he wins his next fight. Usyk has also teased that he may come back to cruiserweight, and if so, Jai Opetaia can be a possible match-up. In heavyweight, the young British Moses Itauma hopes to break Mike Tyson‘s record of being the youngest heavyweight champion.

Final Thoughts

After Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue, Oleksandr Usyk is the third male boxer in history to become an undisputed champion in two weight classes in the four-belt era. Usyk is an excellent symbol of faith, courage, humility, perseverance, and patriotism that future generations can look up to. Based on his accomplishments inside and outside the boxing arena, Usyk is undoubtedly the best heavyweight boxer today.