From winning world titles to defending Ukraine - Oleksandr Usyk's turbulent year (2024)

In the days which follow his blockbuster world-title bout against Anthony Joshua, Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk will go from defending his heavyweight titles on the grandest stage to defending his country against the Russian invasion.

"He will return to territorial defence, there is no hesitation about it," his promoter, Alexander Krassyuk, tells BBC Sport.

Usyk will face Briton Joshua at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium on Saturday, 20 August in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The 35-year-old fighter added: "We have to go ahead, be strong and keep moving. This fight is very important. The people of Ukraine need to feel the pride. To become happy."

From the highs of becoming a two-weight world champion, to dealing with harrowing events in his homeland, BBC Sport looks back at a whirlwind 12 months for the unbeaten Usyk.

On 25 September 2021, Usyk outclassed Joshua in London to become WBA (Super), WBO and IBF heavyweight champion.

Tears rolled down the hardman's cheeks. A lifelong dream was achieved. Future hall-of-fame status secured.

Next on the agenda was to bask in the glory. As Rocky Marciano once put it, what could be better than walking down any street in any city and knowing you're the heavyweight champion of the world?

Usyk was mobbed by fans and journalists on his homecoming. But all the national hero sought was a normal life.

"I just want to live," he told reporters at the airport. "I want to take my kids to school, I want to plant trees, water the apple trees and see my wife more often."

It was not a lot to ask for, but Usyk's return to normal life lasted just five months. On 24 February neighbouring Russia launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine.

Having just held talks with Joshua's team about a potential rematch, Usyk was in London when news of the Russian attacks broke.

"We were on a business trip and were just about to fly home on the morning flight," says Sergey Lapin, director of Team Usyk and the heavyweight's assistant coach.

"But suddenly, just a few hours before leaving for the airport, closer to three o'clock in the morning, my wife calls me in tears and says that a lot of explosions are heard and, probably the war has begun."

Krassyuk adds: "It was a late night. Usyk was on his phone and then the news arrived that the bombing had started. So his flight was cancelled of course and so his journey started.

"His family was in Kyiv because his daughter was having her birthday on that day. A lot of guests were in his house in Kyiv."

Instantly, rematch conversations were insignificant. The only assignment for Usyk was to get back his wife Yekaterina and three children, Kyrylo, Mykhailo and Yelizaveta.

With no direct flights to Kyiv, Usyk's journey home lasted almost three days.

"He took a plane to Poland and then took a car to the border of Ukraine," Krassyuk says.

Like most Ukrainian men, Usyk started to help with the war campaign. He had witnessed the destruction first hand.

"Russian soldiers shot at our house, broke down the gate, and dragged away some of our neighbours," Usyk told Profiboxing.

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He was pictured posing with an AK-47, external in early March, alongside friend and fellow boxer Vasiliy Lomachenko, but has denied ever using the gun.

"He got involved with the community self-defence organisation and he started to move around the region he was living in with his partners and colleagues," Krassyuk explains.

"Usyk's job was to cruise their territory looking for strange people, setting up block posts to see who is coming in and who is coming out. To make sure no strange or dangerous people could cross the block post, and if anything happens call the specialist services to investigate."

A month on from the invasion, a rematch with Joshua, tentatively pencilled in for May, was the furthest thing from the champion's mind.

"I really don't know when I'm going to be stepping back in the ring," Usyk told CNN. "My country and my honour are more important to me than a championship belt."

Krassyuk adds: "Usyk did not want to leave the country. Usyk did not want to leave his family.

"He asked his wife to leave, to cross the border into Poland, or any other European country. She told him she would not go without him. So he was stressed.

"We didn't know what was going to happen, whether the fight was going to take place at all.

"I spoke to [promoter] Eddie Hearn and he said that AJ totally understands what is going on and that AJ was thinking of taking a tune-up fight in between."

Usyk's priority was to protect his nation, but it was the will of the Ukrainian people which convinced him to consider getting back into the ring.

"He was travelling throughout the country, he was visiting some hospitals with the injured soldiers and talking to fans, and whoever he met he heard the words of support and blessings to take the rematch," Krassyuk says.

"To return to be a professional fighter, to return to his job. The people wanted the Ukrainian flag to rise and the Ukrainian anthem to be heard around the planet."

Usyk was given the green light from the president, prime minister, and minister of sport. Former world heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, now the mayor of Kyiv, also gave his blessings.

As rematch negotiations resumed, Usyk and his team travelled to Poland at the end of March to begin training.

But with the booming sounds of air-raid sirens still ringing in their ears, it took a while for Usyk to readjust to boxing, and he enlisted the help of a sports psychologist.

"I've got two specialists in my team," Usyk says. "I'm not counting myself. Though I have education in psychology, I can't understand what's happening to me."

Krassuk adds: "When we crossed the border in late March, you didn't hear the alarm any more, you didn't feel the danger the way you feel it at home. That brings the pressure down.

"It took him a certain period of time to recover. It took all of us maybe a month, maybe a bit more, to come back to your normal."

Despite being the unified champion, Usyk is still a novice as a heavyweight boxer. Having cleaned up the cruiserweight division, he has only fought three times at the new weight.

Lapin says the distress endured with events in Ukraine took its toll on Usyk's body.

"Alexander lost a couple of kilograms, he kept in shape [but] was too active," Lapin says.

"Everything is fine with him now - his weight has returned to normal, he feels great physically and mentally."

The rematch was originally mooted for 23 July in Saudi Arabia, a controversial choice with critics citing the country's poor human rights record and military activities in Yemen.

With finer details to be finalised, it was eventually confirmed that Usyk would face challenger Joshua on 20 August, with unconfirmed reports suggesting both fighters could earn up to £100m each., external

When the two men came face-to-face at a media conference in Saudi Arabia on 21 June, Usyk did not say much or reference the controversy surrounding competing there, only that he was fighting for Ukraine.

"We are not in the best conditions at the moment back home," he said. "I never made some very loud and bright speeches, all I did was just work hard in my training camp, my gym. That's what I'm going do until the date of the fight."

The champion launched the Usyk Foundation charity fund to help those affected by the war. In August, Usyk attempted to buy the Ukrainian TV rights of the fight from the Saudi Arabia organisers, and was instead gifted it.

He will broadcast the clash on free-to-view TV and on his YouTube channel for his compatriots.

"In this difficult time for our country, he is very helpful to those people who needed him and asked for help," Lapin says.

"He is the kind of person who does not like to shout about his good deeds."

Krassyuk adds: "His incentive to take this fight was not his thirst for success or willingness to become the greatest - he took it for his county and for his people, because Ukraine needs victory."

There is no questioning Usyk's abilities as a boxer; he's a masterful technician and pound-for-pound great.

But there are some unknowns about whether the events of the past year will help or hinder his focus on fight night.

"Ukrainians have a strong mentality - they are a strong people," Krassyuk says in response.

"They are not afraid of challenges. They are not afraid of some dangerous things because they grew up around those sorts of things.

"You feel the danger. There is some fear, but a strong man is not the man who does not hold fear, but the one who can deal with it. Usyk is that man.

"I can't say that there are too many fighters in the world that can share a similar experience, going through war, and making it to the ring to defend the heavyweight crown, but Usyk will do that."

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