{"id":387724,"date":"2026-01-04T14:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T14:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/387724\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T14:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T14:16:07","slug":"oleksandr-usyk-names-his-toughest-opponent-in-unbeaten-24-fight-career-hes-a-terrible-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/387724\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk names his toughest opponent in unbeaten 24 fight career: “He’s a terrible guy”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> gave a rather unexpected response, branding his former foe a \u2018terrible guy\u2019, when asked to name the toughest opponent he has ever faced.<\/p>\n

The masterful Ukrainian is, of course, no stranger to elite competition, having previously claimed an Olympic gold medal and more recently become a three-time, two-division undisputed champion.<\/p>\n

While campaigning at cruiserweight, Usyk came up against a selection of established world champions and worthy contenders, including the likes of Mairis Briedis, Murat Gassiev and Michael Hunter.<\/p>\n

Briedis, in particular, is thought to have given the pound-for-pound king his toughest test in the professional ranks, with many believing that he had done enough to edge their encounter in 2018.<\/p>\n

But Usyk, nevertheless, claimed a majority decision victory and extended his unbeaten record, before moving up to the land of the giants.<\/p>\n

It was there where he secured career-enhancing wins over Tyson Fury<\/a>, Anthony Joshua<\/a> and Daniel Dubois<\/a>, beating each of the Brits on two occasions, and firmly cemented himself as the greatest heavyweight of his era.<\/p>\n

And yet, quite surprisingly, it was Derek Chisora<\/a> who, according to the man himself, gave Usyk his toughest night\u2019s work in 2020.<\/p>\n

While Usyk emerged with a convincing unanimous decision victory, the relentless work rate of Chisora<\/a> nonetheless gave him a stern introduction to heavyweight boxing.<\/p>\n

For that reason, the Olympic champion told talkSPORT<\/a> that, in terms of difficulty, his fight with the British veteran eclipses any other assignment he has been involved in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is Derek. My friend, Derek. Hey, Derek, I am coming for you!<\/p>\n

Derek is a terrible guy, terribly tough. It\u2019s just hard [fighting] Derek. He was just very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Usyk\u2019s suggestion of Chisora, who he named as his toughest opponent in February 2025<\/a>, might come as a surprise, it could be said that the physical nature of their contest made it seem particularly demanding for the skilful southpaw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk gave a rather unexpected response, branding his former foe a \u2018terrible guy\u2019, when asked to name…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-387724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}