LONDON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Oleksandr Usyk disagreed with the idea that he\u2019s become one of boxing\u2019s all-time greats, but the evidence is mounting after his fifth-round knockout of Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The victory, sealed with a crunching left hook to Dubois\u2019 jaw, made Usyk the undisputed world heavyweight champion for a second time.<\/p>\n
The undefeated southpaw retained his WBA, WBC and WBO belts and regained the IBF belt he relinquished just over a year ago.<\/p>\n
The bad news for opponents \u2014 especially the British ones that he keeps beating \u2014 is that the 38-year-old Ukrainian has no plans to stop anytime soon. He said he\u2019s still a \u201cyoung guy\u201d and named Tyson Fury, Derek Chisora, Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker as possible next foes. Jake Paul threw his own hat in the ring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will continue boxing and I will continue training, but now I cannot say who my next opponent will be,\u201d Usyk said at his press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cI prepared 3 1\/2 months, I\u2019ve not seen my family, my wife. Every day I live with my team \u2014 14 guys in one house. Now I want to go back home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Usyk dropped Dubois twice in the fifth \u2014 the second time with a lunging left hook midway through the round after Dubois missed with a right. The London native looked stunned on the canvas and couldn\u2019t beat the count before about 90,000 spectators at Wembley.<\/p>\n
Usyk, best known as a slick tactician rather than a power puncher, certainly answered questions about his age and whether he\u2019d slow down.<\/p>\n
He said that hook is called an \u201cIvan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIvan is like a big guy who lives in [the] village and work in (a) farm… it\u2019s a hard, hard punch,\u201d Usyk said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandr Usyk and Britain\u2019s Daniel Dubois trade punches during an undisputed world heavyweight boxing title fight in London on Saturday.<\/p>\n
(Frank Augstein \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n
No controversy<\/p>\n
Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) beat Dubois for the second time in under two years and this time there was no low-blow drama. It was a ninth-round stoppage in Poland with, of all things, a straight jab. But the finishing shot Saturday was a no-doubter.<\/p>\n
Dubois (22-3, 21 KOs) joined British countrymen Fury and Joshua in having lost twice to Usyk, who was an undisputed world champion as a cruiserweight before he moved up in weight six years ago.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old Dubois\u2019 last fight \u2014 also at Wembley \u2014 had been a stunning knockout of Joshua last September.<\/p>\n
He couldn\u2019t muster the same magic, telling DAZN: \u201cI gave everything I had. Take no credit away from that man, I\u2019ll be back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Briton gave a better showing than two years ago, when Usyk peppered him with jabs and won almost every round. Between the fourth and fifth rounds Saturday, Dubois\u2019 corner was urging him to use a double jab but there was not time to carry out the orders as Usyk ended it shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n
Dubois was hoping to become the first British heavyweight to hold every major belt since Lennox Lewis just over 25 years ago.<\/p>\n
Dubois had inherited the IBF title that Usyk vacated last year when the Ukrainian chose to focus on his rematch with Fury.<\/p>\n
Usyk said flatly \u201cNo\u201d in response to whether he thinks he\u2019s one of the sport\u2019s all-time greats.<\/p>\n
He said he\u2019s just disciplined.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have motivation, I have discipline. Motivation is temporary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
U.K. has been good to Usyk<\/p>\n
Usyk said Britain has been like a \u201csecond home\u201d to him. He won a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics. He dethroned Joshua at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very grateful for this country. Thank you so much, you\u2019re the best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In 2008 in Liverpool, Usyk was crowned European amateur champion in the light heavyweight category.<\/p>\n
In his last fight at the cruiserweight level, Usyk knocked out Liverpool\u2019s Tony Bellew in Manchester. He remains undefeated as a professional and hasn\u2019t lost any bout in 16 years.<\/p>\n
Jake Paul eyes Joshua and Usyk<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, Paul had his share of the spotlight Saturday. He was loudly booed during his entrance to the stadium \u2014 shown on the big screens. <\/p>\n
The YouTuber-turned-boxer told DAZN that a fight against Joshua is \u201cgoing to happen,\u201d possibly at Wembley.<\/p>\n
After the ring cleared out, Paul and Usyk engaged in a brief \u201cstare down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul posted a message on his social media accounts: \u201cCongrats to one of the greatest heavyweights of all time… I respect you a lot. Now we do an MMA match for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cFirst AJ then OU. Book it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frank Bruno was among the VIPs. The London native won the WBC heavyweight belt 30 years ago at the old Wembley Stadium when he beat Oliver McCall. He was knocked out by Mike Tyson six months later.<\/p>\n
Usyk entered the stadium with an Eeyore stuffed donkey from the \u201cWinnie the Pooh\u201d books tucked into his jumpsuit. He brought it to past fights as well, apparently given to him by his daughter.<\/p>\n
Maguire writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Oleksandr Usyk disagreed with the idea that he\u2019s become one of boxing\u2019s all-time greats, but the evidence is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[8075,64,63,746,802,7701,7503,9225,10739,10741,1613,7704,10738,85,8691,10740,8823,8076,1547],"class_list":["post-9006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-anthony-joshua","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-book","tag-boxing","tag-daniel-dubois","tag-dubois","tag-jake-paul","tag-last-fight","tag-left-hook","tag-liverpool","tag-oleksandr-usyk","tag-second-time","tag-sports","tag-tyson-fury","tag-undisputed-world-heavyweight-champion","tag-wembley","tag-wembley-stadium","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}