Oleksandr Usyk

Profile Overview

Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Usyk (Ukrainian: Олександр Олександрович Усик, pronounced [olekˈsɑndr ˈusɪk]; born 17 January 1987) is a Ukrainian professional boxer. He was the undisputed world heavyweight champion twice in 2024 and 2025 and held the unified heavyweight championship from 2021 until vacating his sanctioning body titles in June 2026, and has held The Ring heavyweight title since 2022. He held the undisputed championship in two weight classes—cruiserweight and heavyweight—and is the first male boxer to become a three-time undisputed champion in the "four-belt era". Undefeated at the time of relinquishing his belts, Usyk is still considered to be lineal heavyweight champion of the world.
As an amateur, Usyk won heavyweight gold medals at the 2011 World Championships and 2012 Olympics while accumulating a record of 335 wins and 15 losses. He turned professional in 2013, winning his first world title in 2016. By winning the undisputed cruiserweight championship in 2018 at the conclusion of the World Boxing Super Series tournament, Usyk became the first Ukrainian undisputed champion in history. In 2021, Usyk defeated unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua to win the WBA, IBF, and WBO titles. In May 2024, Usyk defeated Tyson Fury to claim the WBC title and the undisputed championship in his second weight class, one of only three boxers to do so in the four-belt era. In July 2025, he knocked out Daniel Dubois to become two-time undisputed heavyweight champion, becoming only the second boxer to do so after Muhammad Ali.
Usyk was the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis was stripped of the title on 12 April 2000, and is the first and only cruiserweight and heavyweight boxer in history to hold the world titles of all four major sanctioning bodies—the World Boxing Association (WBA) (Super title), World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxing Federation (IBF), and World Boxing Organization (WBO)—in the four-belt era. He previously held the undisputed cruiserweight championship from 2018 to 2019, and is the first boxer to become the undisputed champion in these two weight classes since Evander Holyfield in 1990. The Ring and the Boxing Writers Association of America named Usyk their Fighter of the Year in 2018 and 2024.
In February 2025, Sportico ranked Usyk at No. 7 among the highest-paid athletes of 2024, with an estimated income of $122 million. In May 2025, Forbes put him at No. 11 in its ranking of the highest-paid athletes in the world, with his earnings being estimated at $101 million.