Tue, Jan 31, 2023 page16

• Usyk fighting for Ukraine on a different battlefield

  • AFP, PARIS
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  Ukraine’s world heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk said he has two goals this year — a unification title fight with Tyson Fury and rebuilding the house where his friend was killed by Russian soldiers.

  Oleksiy Dzhunkivskyi, a former teammate of Usyk, was shot in the hall of the building in Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv.

  Usyk has teamed up with the charity United24 and is raising funds to restore the badly damaged five-story house to its former glory. He has contributed US$205,000 toward the overall cost of US$330,000.

  

  Oleksandr Usyk celebrates winning his IBF heavyweight world title fight against Anthony Joshua at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Aug. 20 last year.

  Photo: Reuters

  Usyk said it had been a coincidence he had selected the building to take a look.

  “I randomly chose this house,” the 36-year-old former cruiserweight world champion said through an interpreter.

  “When we came to look at it and saw how destroyed the house was, I was a little surprised,” he said. “In this house there was a boxing gym of my good friend. He and I were in the national team, we went to boxing competitions together.”

  “Oleksiy Dzhunkivskyi was shot by Russian soldiers right in this hall,” Usyk added.

  When Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, Usyk had wanted to take up arms immediately.

  However, he was dissuaded from doing so as his compatriots felt that in his role as a sports star with global renown he could add another weapon to the Ukrainian war chest.

  “The guys from the armed forces convinced me that I need to prepare and fight to help my country on the international stage, talk about it and bring opportunities to Ukraine to restore my country,” he said.

  Usyk, whose family are in Kyiv, was especially moved by a visit to a hospital where wounded soldiers were being treated.

  He met with them prior to a title rematch in Saudi Arabia in August last year with the British boxer Anthony Joshua, who had been dethroned by Usyk in September 2021.

  “Well, it was touching, because some guys told me: ‘Alex, you should go and prepare and come back with a victory.’”

  “These guys, 10 to 15 of them, came to Saudi Arabia and supported me. These soldiers, who have been fighting since day one, we brought them to watch the fight,” Usyk said. “Some guys didn’t have limbs, and when I met them on the eve of the fight, I felt that a part of the Ukrainian army was with me. [Either] in the locker room or with me in the country.”

  Usyk went on to retain the title on a split-points decision, but he said he felt a heavy responsibility on his shoulders during the bout.

  “In the ninth round I realized that if I fall now, the spirit of the fighters who defend our country will also fall,” he said. “I didn’t box for myself, I boxed for all those who defend the country.”

  He said a unification title fight with Fury could possibly take place “at the end of April.”

  With the war about to enter its second year, Usyk has a message for his compatriots — and is utterly dismissive about the Russians.

  “My message to my indomitable people is the yellow-blue heart is strength, it is victory,” he said.

  “To the neighbors [the Russians]... They are so sick that it is impossible to reach them,” Usyk said. “They write to me in large quantities that I am bad, that I am not polite and that I should die... Sick people need to be treated, so let them treat themselves there.”
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