Oleksandr Usyk biography: 13 things about Ukrainian boxer born in Simferopol, Crimea

Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Usyk (Олекса́ндр Олекса́ндрович У́сик) is a Ukrainian undefeated professional boxer. He is 6’3″ tall and he competes in the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions.

Born in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Usyk grew up playing association football. He was trained at the Sports Club Tavriya in Simferopol.

Usyk is a devout Christian and an alumnus of Lviv State University of Physical Culture (Львівський державний університет фізичної культури) in Lviv, Ukraine. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. In 2002, he started training in boxing. In July 2006, he won three matches at the 36th European Amateur Boxing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria as a middleweight boxer.
2. In November 2008, he won gold as a light heavyweight boxer at the 37th European Amateur Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom. In December 2008, he won silver in men’s heavyweight division at the 2008 Boxing World Cup in Moscow, Russia. He won bronze in men’s lightweight division at the 2008 Standzha Cup in Plovdiv. In September 2009, he won bronze in men’s heavyweight division at the 2009 AIBA World Boxing Championships in Milan, Italy. Representing Crimea, he won gold in men’s heavyweight boxing at the 2009 Ukrainian National Championships in Kryvyi Rih.
3. His wife Kateryna Ulyk gave birth to their three children in 2009, 2013 and 2015. They live in Kyiv, Ukraine.
4. In October 2011, he won gold in men’s heavyweight division at the 2011 AIBA World Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.
5. In August 2012, he won gold in men’s heavyweight boxing at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
6. When he made his professional boxing debut in Kyiv on September 11, 2013, he knocked out Felipe Romero of Mexico. On December 7, 2013, he knocked out Epifanio Mendoza of Colombia in Brovary, Ukraine.
7. He knocked out Ben Nsafoah of Germany on April 26, 2014 in Oberhausen, Germany and Cesar David Crenz of Argentina on May 31, 2014 in Odessa, Ukraine. On April 28, 2014, he declared that he would never exchange his Ukrainian citizenship for Russian citizenship and that he considered Crimea a part of Ukraine. He won the World Boxing Organization (WBO) Inter-Continental interim cruiserweight title by knocking out Daniel Bruwer of South Africa in Lviv on October 4, 2014 and successfully defended the title in Kyiv from Danie Venter of South Africa on December 13, 2014, Andrey Knyazev of Russia on April 8, 2015, Johnny Muller of South Africa on August 29, 2015 and Pedro Rodriguez of Cuba on December 12, 2015.
8. On September 17, 2016, he won the WBO cruiserweight title by defeating Krzysztof Glowacki via unanimous decision in Gdansk, Poland and successfully defended the title from Thabiso Mchunu of South Africa on December 17, 2016 in Inglewood, California, United States and Michael Hunter of the U.S. on April 8, 2017 in Oxon Hill, Maryland, USA.
9. While retaining the WBO cruiserweight title, he won the World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) cruiserweight quarterfinal by knocking out Marco Huck of Germany on September 9, 2017 in Berlin, Germany and won the WBSS cruiserweight semifinal and the World Boxing Council (WBC) cruiserweight title by defeating Mairis Briedis of Latvia via majority decision on January 27, 2018 in Riga, Latvia.
10. When he defeated Murat Gassiev of Russia via unanimous decision on July 21, 2018 in Moscow, he retained the WBC and WBO cruiserweight titles while winning the World Boxing Association (WBA) Super, International Boxing Federation (IBF) and vacant The Ring cruiserweight titles and the WBSS cruiserweight final. This made him the first Ukrainian boxer to become an undisputed champion and the fourth male boxer in history to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles after Jermain Taylor, Bernard Hopkins and Terence Crawford. On November 10, 2018, he retained the WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO and The Ring cruiserweight titles by knocking out Tony Bellew of the U.K. in Manchester, England.
11. In 2019, he vacated his cruiserweight titles and moved up to heavyweight. On October 12, 2019, he defeated Chazz Witherspoon of the U.S. in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
12. On October 31, 2020, he won the WBO Inter-Continental heavyweight title by defeating Derek Chisora of the U.K. via unanimous decision in London.
13. He was 34 years old when he defeated Anthony Joshua of the U.K. via unanimous decision on September 25, 2021 in London, winning the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles and improving his professional boxing record to 19 wins and 0 losses.

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