Until recently, he was on the frontlines, willing to kill to defend Ukraine’s capital city against invading Russians and, while he is focusing on boxing for now, he is eager to display his support for his home country at every opportunity.
News reporter
Saturday 20 August 2022 14:41, UK
The Ukrainian boxer set to take on the UK’s Anthony Joshua this evening has been described as having “zero fear” and being like the “joker”.
Yet, with a war raging in his home country Oleksandr Usyk, the reigning unified world champion, has made it clear he is deadly serious and will be fighting for his country when he competes to keep his titles tonight.
So, who is the man described by Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn as “a strange one”?
The rematch
This is Usyk’s second fight against Anthony Joshua after he beat the Briton on 25 September 2021 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, having won the right to challenge him for the WBO heavyweight belt by securing his previous victory.
Even though he entered the bout as the reigning champion and pre-fight favourite, Joshua was outboxed with Usyk winning the judges decision unanimously.
This time, the pair square off in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with the bout being shown on Sky Sports Box Office this evening, with the build up from 6pm.
Defending Ukraine
Less than six months ago, Usyk was manning the barricades in his home country’s war with Russia, having joined the territorial defence battalion.
He had been in London when Russia invaded and rushed back, flying to Poland and driving the rest of the way, to join his friends and compatriots to protect his homeland.
He told CNN at the time he was willing to kill to defend Ukraine and had no fear of dying.
He told the network: “My soul belongs to the Lord and my body and my honour belong to my country, to my family. So there is no fear, absolutely no fear.”
Return to boxing
By the end of March, however, he had left his native country in order to prepare for his rematch with Joshua.
A second fight had already been agreed soon after he won the first last year, but Usyk had been reluctant after the war broke out.
Yet, in a video message in which he spoke mostly Russian on 29 March, he said he believed he would serve Ukraine better by taking part in the upcoming boxing match.
“In this way, I can help my country more and better than I would by being in the Territorial Defence and running around Kyiv with a machine gun,” he said.
Klitschko’s support
He later revealed he had been encouraged in his decision to train for the fight by the Klitschko brothers, former heavyweight world champions themselves.
Usyk revealed in an interview with his sponsor Blockasset that some of his friends were missing and he viewed boxing as “child’s play”, compared to war.
But he said that after speaking to Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, he had decided to return to the ring. At the time, mayor of Kyiv Vitali had been leading the defence of his city.
‘Scary reflexes’
He has been described as having “scary reflexes”. One of his tricks is to flick four coins up from his elbow at the same time – and catch them all one by one.
It is one of the reasons the 35-year-old is the bookies’ favourite for the match tonight, despite weighing in more than 10kg lighter than Joshua.
Proud dresser
There was widespread amusement after he turned up to a number of pre-fight events in a range of outfits which some have likened to looking like a clown.
At his weigh in for the September fight, he wore a red suit, dark green shirt, black and gold check tie and a mustard waistcoat, which many said left him looking like the Batman character The Joker.
But he later revealed that they were a modern interpretation of the national costume of the Cossacks, an ethnic group who have lived in what is now Ukraine for centuries.
Cossacks were formidable fighters and often made up the ranks of the armies of Russian and Polish empires.
At a news conference for the upcoming fight, he wore a different outfit harking back to his Cossack ancestry, featuring a dark brown sleeveless tabard, broad belt and a white shirt with an embroidered trim.
He is now often nicknamed The Cossack.
The help of Eeyore
Usyk revealed at one of his news conferences that one of his most important team members was the Winnie the Pooh character Eeyore.
He said he bought a stuffed Eeyore toy for his daughter Elizabeth during a family trip to Disneyland Paris and she renamed it Liolia, a girl’s name.
She then presented Liolia to the boxer for good luck before he headed off to training camp and the toy has been by his side ever since.
He told reporters Liolia was his “talisman”, adding: “It sleeps with me, is always close to me. I’m not sure about it being in my corner on Saturday night… she might be scared! But she will definitely be in my dressing room.”
He can sing (sort of)
At the end of the pre-fight news conference, he launched into song, with a rendition of the folk song “Oy U Luzi Chervona Kalyna”, which Rubryka.com says has become one of the symbols of Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s military aggression.
The oseledets
When he last fought Joshua, he sported the shaved head ubiquitous across the boxing and martial arts world.
But in his most recent pre-fight events, he was happy to be seen wearing a long single lock, which some have likened to a pony tail, but is in fact another nod to his Ukrainian heritage.
The oseledets, or chub, hairstyle is commonly associated with Ukrainian Cossacks, going back to the early Middle Ages when it was frequently copied by warriors from other nations who wanted to capture some of the notoriety with which Ukrainian mercenaries were held.
The long central strip which was often braided or tied in a topknot has undergone a number of revivals over the centuries in association with Ukrainian nationalism.
Multi weight
Until 2019, he boxed at cruiserweight, one or two weight levels down from heavyweight (depending on the supervising organisation), even though he had previously won the Olympic heavyweight gold medal, before the start of his professional career, in the London Olympics.
He is only the fourth male boxer in history to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles and is the first Ukrainian to be an undisputed champion (at cruiserweight), something neither of the Klitschko brothers achieved, mainly because they did not want to fight each other.
Raised in Crimea
While his parents are originally from northern Ukraine, Usyk was born in Crimea – now under Russian occupation – while it was still part of the Soviet Union.
His father was from Sumy and fought with the Soviet army in Afghanistan before becoming a security guard and his mother had moved to Simferopol to study, where they met, and Usyk grew up.
He was also a talented footballer and trained at the academy local team SC Tavriya Simferopol until he was 15.
