The 37-year-old Ukrainian is the first heavyweight to hold every major title belt since Lennox Lewis. Oleksandr Usyk is a former undisputed cruiserweight world champion and current unified heavyweight champion. He won a vacant The Ring Heavyweight belt against Anthony Joshua, beating him by split decision after 12 rounds on August 20, 2022. He has held this belt for a total of 1046 days (2 years, 10 months and 12 days) and has defended the belt 3 times.

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The timing of the announcement—less than a month out from Usyk’s July 19 clash at Wembley with Dubois—has raised eyebrows in the boxing community. Alex Krassyuk confirms he and Usyk are done after 12 years together. The timing—right before the Dubois fight—has raised eyebrows across the boxing world.

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Usyk started quickly, but then had to survive while the confident, charismatic Fury dominated the middle rounds. Usyk rallied in the final rounds, just as the Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist has done so many times in his career, taking control with a dominant eighth and nearly stopping Fury in the ninth. Usyk surged in the final rounds, just as the Olympic gold medalist has done so many times in his career, taking control with a dominant eighth and nearly stopping Fury in the ninth. World Boxing News provides the latest updates on the Ukranian heavyweight champion.

WBO International Title**

The most recent undisputed heavyweight champ was Lewis, who beat Evander Holyfield in late 1999 and enjoyed a five-month reign. He soon lost a title because of the territorial squabbles that have beset boxing for the past quarter-century and routinely prevented the biggest fights from happening. Usyk has now joined the elite club of fighters who held every major world championship belt at heavyweight — and he is the first to do it in the four-belt era, which began in 2007.

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• Usyk outlanded Fury in rounds 2–3 and 5–12; Fury outlanded Usyk in the fourth (11 punches to 10), while the opening round was even (six punches each).
• Alex Krassyuk confirms he and Usyk are done after 12 years together.
• Some potential future fights for Usyk include Chris Billam-Smith, Filip Hrgovic, Zhilei Zhang, Jared Anderson and Deontay Wilder.

The two-fight deal for this long-awaited matchup included a planned Oct. 12 rematch in Riyadh, where Fury will look to even the score and oleksandr usyk vs daniel dubois move on to a superfight with Anthony Joshua in the first quarter of 2025. Usyk hurt Fury (34-1-1) with a left hand and eventually sent him sprawling into a corner in the final seconds of the round, getting credit for a knockdown right before Fury was saved by the bell. Fury made it to the 10th, but he struggled to mount a consistent attack after nearly getting stopped. Dubois, looking for revenge after losing his first fight with Usyk back in 2023, expects to be the opponent to bring Usyk’s career to a close. He believes their July 19 bout could be the last fight Usyk has. Referee Mark Nelson could have stopped the fight, but he ordered Usyk away for a standing count interrupted by the bell.

Promoter

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. Usyk, who entered with the WBA, IBF and WBO belts, captured Fury’s WBC title to become the first undisputed heavyweight champ in the four-belt era. He also became the lineal heavyweight champion, a title Fury had held since 2015 following an upset victory over Usyk’s countryman, Wladimir Klitschko.

Fury kissed Usyk on the head after the final bell, and Usyk hugged Fury several moments after the decision was read. The news is particularly shocking, given that Krassyuk attended the Usyk vs Dubois II launch press conference in April. “A dream come true!!! Thank you for all we’ve gone through and for the honour to be the lifetime promoter of the Double Undisputed. “He has a strong, professional team that has long taken over key areas — from training to brand development. Under Krassyuk’s promotional banner, Usyk became one of only three men to achieve undisputed supremacy in two separate weight classes alongside Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue. The Australian himself said it was a fight he would ‘take with both hands’.

While Usyk has shown resilience and adaptability throughout his career, even minor cracks in camp cohesion can become magnified in big fights—especially when age, wear, and a hungry challenger are all in play. He swarmed over the bigger man in the 10th but also took shots himself and as the last two rounds arrived it was perhaps Fury who needed to do something to catch the judges’ eyes. The ninth round was the turning point in May when Fury was saved by the bell and while those dramatics were missing this time, Usyk was showing similar purpose as he continued to build momentum.

Although Usyk didn’t finish Fury, he shifted momentum in the fight for good. He swept Rounds 8-10 on all three scorecards to pull away down the stretch. Fury won the final round unanimously, but by then it was too late. However, Krassyuk told ESPN there is “no doubt” Usyk would be ready for the planned Oct. 12 rematch.

The news emerged subtly but unmistakably through a reflective Instagram post from Krassyuk, who thanked Usyk for a “tremendous journey” that spanned over a decade and included multiple world titles across two weight divisions. At different stages in his career Fury has held every major championship belt, even if he never went undisputed. Earlier, 41-year-old former light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev returned to the ring for only the second time since 2019 with a decision loss to Sweden’s Robin Sirwan Safar.