Oleksandr Usyk steps into the ring for a rematch against Anthony Joshua. It should be a heavyweight spectacle. But sport is only the means to an end in this duel. Usyk is on a mission.
Oleksandr Usyk will never forget the day that changed everything. “It was my daughter’s twelfth birthday and of course I cried,” Usyk said. They weren’t tears of emotion over little Elizabeth. They were tears of horror and helplessness. It was February 24 – and Russia had begun invading Usyk’s homeland of Ukraine.
When the heavyweight world champion gets into the ring against Britain’s Anthony Joshua on Saturday night, it’s more than a boxing match. It’s about hope for the people at home who can watch the duel for free. It’s about a sign of freedom that the whole world should see. “Boxing is child’s play compared to war. War is survival,” Usyk said.
One can only imagine the incredible pressure and possibly even greater motivation of the 35-year-old. Even without the world championship belt at stake, it will be the most important fight of his life. Usyk is an ambassador of his homeland, an ambassador of peace. In the past few weeks he has repeatedly appeared in blue and yellow T-shirts with the imprint “Colors of Freedom”. At the final PK he appeared in traditional Cossack garb and sang a Ukrainian resistance song at the end.
Usyk was an eyewitness to the Russian invasion. The superstar reported to the Ukrainian Army Volunteer Battalion and went on patrol in Kyiv. “I prayed every day that nobody would kill me and that I wouldn’t have to shoot anyone,” Usyk said. When he visited injured soldiers in an infirmary, his perspective changed. His comrades encouraged him to leave home and get back in the ring. That would help Ukraine more. Former world champions Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko also had the same effect on Usyk.
At the end of March he traveled to Poland with a special permit. Usyk not only had a goal in mind, but finally answers to the questions of his three children. They wanted to know from their dad why someone wanted to kill them. “I then explain to them that the Russians want this because they are weak people,” Usyk said. “And that is also the reason why they will not win the war. We are stronger than them.”
Usyk’s story is also that of a displaced person. Born and raised in Crimea, he left the peninsula after the Russian annexation in 2014 and moved to Kyiv. After the invasion in late February, the Russians broke into his home in Worsel, northwest of the capital, and briefly used it as a base of operations. It is currently being rebuilt. “Everything will be fine,” emphasized Usyk.
In order to give his compatriots a little distraction and some joy, Usyk made every effort to buy the TV rights for the rematch against Joshua for Ukraine. “In the end he even got the rights as a gift,” said his promoter Alex Krassjuk. The fight will be available to watch for free on state television, Usyk’s YouTube channel and the Megogo streaming platform. “It’s great and shows my connection to Ukraine. It will inspire me,” Usyk said.
In terms of sport, he is already the favorite after he missed a boxing lesson last September and dethroned Joshua as the title holder of the major associations IBF, WBA and WBO as well as the smaller IBO. Joshua gets a knockout against Usyk. need, but has won all of his 19 fights. Longtime cruiserweight world champion Usyk has only been boxing heavyweight for almost three years.
Thematically, the war in Ukraine is so big that the location of the battle only plays a minor role. The duel, marketed as “Rage on the Red Sea”, takes place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and is part of the sportswashing campaign of the kingdom, which has been criticized for numerous human rights violations. The fighters are said to be getting $50 million each for the fight. Usyk himself has not yet commented on this topic. He recently left a question from a “Guardian” journalist unanswered, saying that he had to go to training.
