Oleksandr Usyk is a ground-breaking fighter who grew to become the primary undisputed heavyweight world champion within the four-belt period final Could.
Undefeated in his skilled profession, he has already gone undisputed down at cruiserweight. He may look to repeat the feat once more, though remaining at heavyweight after he dominated out a mooted transfer again all the way down to cruiserweight.
“Now I think it’s not possible because six years of work to grow my weight, work, work, work, eating, eating and then work. Now I don’t go down,” he informed Sky Sports activities.
“My conditioning coach and my team said it’s better here, than cruiserweight, because ‘you’re not a young guy, not 24, 25’. It’s my team, not me. I’m 38, okay I’m young, very young, listen, I like dancing. I feel good, my body. I think I can fight!”
He does, although, solely count on to field twice extra in his profession.
Nonetheless the holder of the WBC, WBO and WBA world heavyweight titles, Usyk vacated the IBF belt when he took his December rematch with Tyson Fury.
Daniel Dubois picked up the IBF championship and defends it in opposition to Joseph Parker on this Saturday’s Riyadh Season occasion, dwell on Sky Sports activities Field Workplace.
Usyk would welcome a battle with the winner “no problem” and suspects that can be Dubois.
“My team has made a prediction. 52 per cent is for Dubois, 48 per cent is Joseph Parker,” Usyk mentioned.
The Ukrainian has boxed Dubois earlier than, halting the Briton of their 2023 conflict. However, after that loss, Dubois staged a powerful sequence of victories, beating Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and Anthony Joshua, defeating all three inside the space.
After Usyk’s second victory over Fury, Dubois, now a rival champion, stormed into the ring to confront the Ukrainian, demanding a second battle and his shot at revenge.
“I thought: ‘What are you doing here? This is my place’,” Usyk recalled. “After the fight [Dubois said:] ‘Hey, listen, I want rematch…’ Just say good job.”
Usyk has fought quite a few British opponents. “I like the UK, with my British rivals. Because my first fight in the UK I was amateur, 2008, Liverpool, [the European Championships]. Then it was London, Olympic Games, then it was [competing at York Hall in the World Series of Boxing against] Joe Joyce. Then it was my best friend, great, great man Tony Bellew. Tony made me more famous,” he mentioned.
His wins over Derek Chisora, Anthony Joshua (twice) and Tyson Fury (twice) as nicely have made him much more well-known in Britain and extremely regarded.
He may have one other two-fight sequence with one other British opponent if Dubois retains the IBF belt.
“I love my English fans because I think they’re very, very special fans. I get a lot of messages on Instagram: ‘hey, Usyk congratulations,'” he mentioned. “I think, thank you so much for this.”
Daniel Dubois v Joseph Parker and the Artur Beterbiev v Dmitry Bivol rematch can be dwell on Saturday February 22 on Sky Sports activities Field Workplace. Ebook now!