b. 1987
Oleksandr Usyk
Boxer, undisputed world champion
No boxer in history had been undisputed world champion three times before him. Oleksandr Usyk from Simferopol won Olympic gold in London in 2012, then collected all the major belts, first at cruiserweight and later at heavyweight.
Key accomplishments
- Olympic champion (London, 2012), amateur world champion (2011) and European champion (2008)
- Undisputed world cruiserweight champion (2018)
- Undisputed world heavyweight champion (2024 and 2025): the first boxer to win the undisputed title three times
- Order of Freedom (2024), the National Legend of Ukraine award (2024), the Order of Merit in all three classes
Undisputed, three times over
An undisputed world champion holds the belts of all the major boxing organizations at once. Few boxers in history have done it. In July 2025 in London, Oleksandr Usyk beat Britain’s Daniel Dubois for the second time and became the first boxer to win that title for a third time.
From Simferopol to London
Usyk was born in 1987 in Simferopol. As an amateur he became European champion (2008) and world champion (2011), and in 2012 he won the Olympic Games in London. After the Olympics he turned professional: in 2013 he signed with K2 Promotions, the company founded by the brothers Vitalii and Volodymyr Klychko.
Two weight classes
Usyk started out at cruiserweight. In July 2018 he won the final of the World Boxing Super Series and became the first Ukrainian to be undisputed world champion. Then he moved up to heavyweight, where the biggest boxers fight. In May 2024 he beat Tyson Fury and united the four championship belts, and in 2025, after his second fight with Dubois, he did it again. In May 2026 in Giza, Egypt, he beat the Dutchman Rico Verhoeven and kept his unified world title.
February 2022
When russia launched its full-scale invasion, Usyk came back from Britain to Kyiv and joined the territorial defence. “It is my duty to fight, to defend my home, my family,” he said. The rematch with Anthony Joshua that was being planned had to wait. In 2024 the president awarded Usyk the Order of Freedom and the National Legend of Ukraine award.
Debates and assessments
Before 2022 some Ukrainians criticized Usyk for words and actions linked to russia. In October 2014, after russia annexed Crimea, he took part in opening a boxing tournament in Simferopol alongside Sergei Aksyonov, whom russia had installed as the peninsula’s leader. In 2015 he posted a photo with a St George ribbon on Instagram, and later replaced it. In a 2016 interview he said: “I don’t divide our peoples, because we are Slavs,” and the media reported this as a claim that Ukrainians and russians are one people. In 2020 he was criticized for appearing in a film made by a russian monastery.
Usyk himself never gave up his Ukrainian citizenship. In 2020 he answered his critics: “Don’t divide people,” and explained: “For me a Ukrainian is a Ukrainian. And it doesn’t matter whether he lives in Lviv, Crimea, Donetsk or Odesa.” After the 2022 invasion he joined the territorial defence, and in 2024 the state awarded him the Order of Freedom.
Ukrainian identity on the world stage
Usyk made Ukrainian culture fashionable in the boxing world: he comes to weigh-ins in Cossack zhupans and vyshyvankas, wears the traditional Cossack oseledets haircut, dances the hopak in the ring after his wins and keeps promoting Ukrainian traditions to an audience of millions.
Why it matters today
Usyk carried Ukraine’s name through the whole of world boxing: the first Ukrainian to be undisputed world champion, and the first boxer ever to win that title three times. When the full-scale war came, he went back to Kyiv to defend his home. And he made Ukrainian culture visible to millions: the whole world sees the zhupan, the oseledets and the hopak in the ring. His path shows that an athlete from Ukraine can reach the very top of world sport.
