Tyson Fury’s warrior rival Usyk was taught to fight with a knife by soldier dad & is haunted by missing final moments
The heavyweight's friend 'was shot by Russian soldiers' in the gym he has vowed to return to
IT’S the highly anticipated rematch that will see British boxing legend Tyson Fury attempt to unify the heavyweight titles.
Six months after the Gypsy King’s first-ever defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in May, the pair will face each other for a second showdown tomorrow night.
Ukrainian heavyweight Usyk, who is the first to hold all the major heavyweight titles in 24 years, carries with him the fighting spirit of his dead soldier dad and a boxer pal killed by the Russians.
His father, also called Oleksandr, was twice injured while serving the Soviet army in Afghanistan.
He taught his son to duel with a blade, something that could have come in useful when the boxer joined Ukraine’s territorial defence battalion after Russia launched an all-out invasion of his country two years ago.
The city where Usyk, 37, was born and grew up is under the control of Vladimir Putin’s invading forces.
And his boxer friend Oleksiy Dzhunkivskyi was shot dead by the dictator’s troops when they entered Irpin, close to the capital Kyiv, in 2022.
Usyk, nicknamed The Cat, wanted to continue defending his nation, but was urged by soldiers to win for his country with his fists instead.
The boxer’s dedication to his sport cost him his chance to say goodbye to his father properly – because he didn’t get back in time from winning a gold medal at the London Olympic Games in 2012 before he died.
Talking about his late father, he said: “Everything I have now is thanks to him. He put a lot in me, he taught me about the priorities in life, which are family, sports and education.
“He was a military man. My mother hated it when he taught me how to fight with a knife.
” She’d shout ‘Sasha, he’ll grow up to be a criminal’.”
Brush with death
Usyk was born in Simferopol in Crimea where his security guard dad had met his mum Nadezhda, who worked in construction.
His father did not talk much about his time serving with the Soviet army, which had invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
But Usyk recalled: “I saw the consequences of this post-war condition and what happened to him. He often had headaches, he had very high blood pressure.
“I remember that until the last he had some nightmares in which he called out the names of his comrades who were killed.”
Usyk senior was injured twice while fighting for the USSR, which controlled by Ukraine until 1991.
His son, who was born under Communist rule in 1987, first had a passion for football.
The family moved to a village called Rybotyn in the north of Ukraine where he nearly died from pneumonia as a child.
Usyk said: “It was really bad. The doctor even told my mother that I might not survive.”
Mum Nadezhda revealed: “As a child, Sasha was a very sick child.
“Then my son spent a whole year in the Chernihiv hospital.
“My heart was aching and the doctors were afraid to make any predictions for the future.”
Punch on pitch
The family returned to Simferopol when he was a teenager, still at school.
His father was a harsh disciplinarian, who would give him a “slap on the head” if his grades fell below C.
“He raised me to be a man from childhood,” he said.
“He forced me to wash socks and underwear, clean the room, and iron my trousers. He said that if I don’t learn this, if I don’t learn discipline, then I won’t succeed in life.
“He said: ‘The way a man behaves in life, behind the wheel, with women, shows his true strength. If he can’t cope, if he’s dirty, neglected, and doesn’t know how to behave with women, then he’s not a real man’.”
He’d recovered enough from his illness to play football for his school team – something that ended when he punched an opposition player during a match.
Aged 15 he took up boxing instead – encouraged by his dad, an amateur boxer.
My children are asking, ‘Daddy, why do they want to kill us?’ I don’t know how to answer that
Oleksandr Usyk
His swift reflexes and dedication led him to success in the ring, which impressed his childhood sweetheart Yekaterina, generally called Kateryna.
She once admitted: “I didn’t consider him at all, except as a friend. He said ‘If I win the fight today, will you go somewhere with me tonight?’ I say: ‘Win, we’ll see there.” He won. And that’s it.”
Usyk became a national hero when he picked up a gold medal at the Olympic Games in London in 2012 in the heavyweight division.
It was a victory that was to be followed by tragedy – because his dad died a few days later back in Ukraine while Oleksandr was abroad.
He remembered: “He watched me become Olympic champion, but I didn’t make it back in time to show him the gold medal.
“When I arrived he was already lying in the coffin.
“I handed him the medal, put it in his dead hand and then left the room.”
What was most difficult to cope with is that rather than heading home directly from London, Oleksandr had stopped off to collect a supercar, which delayed him going home.
During an emotional interview with TNT he said: “I wanted to bring it with me and show him what a cool car I had. My mom called me at 3am and told me the news.”
He later revealed the emotional phone call to his dad after winning the gold, saying: “I called my dad and started screaming: ‘Yes! We won!’ My father told me: ‘I congratulate you, son. I love you’.
“My father never told me he loved me. It remains in my memory as something special. I tell my children every day that I love them.”
War in Ukraine
In 2013 Usyk became a professional boxer, becoming a world champion in the cruiserweight division, which is just below heavyweight.
A year later Russian-backed separatists took control of Crimea and parts of the east of the country.
He was the undisputed champion when he defeated Brit Tony Bellew in 2018.
After that Usyk stepped up to heavyweight, twice beating Anthony Joshua, the second time after Russia had launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine.
That fight had been in doubt because The Cat wanted to defend his country rather than be a sportsman.
He returned to his homeland in February 2022, armed himself with a rifle and joined the territorial defence force.
He later recalled the night bombs began to rain down on his house in Bucha, on February 24, 2022 – his daughter Yelizaveta’s birthday.
He said: “My children are asking: ‘Daddy, why do they want to kill us?’ I don’t know how to answer that.”
A month after signing up to fight he was persuaded to go on training for the bout with Brit Joshua.
Instead, he is providing financial support for the rebuilding of his heavily bombed homeland.
In his first bout, it was reported that Fury had to agree to give £1million of his reported £115m fight fee to the reconstruction of Ukraine in order for the contest to go ahead.
Usyk is funding the rebuilding of a property in Irpin where one of his friends was killed by advancing Russians who seized the city in February 2022. It was recaptured by Ukrainian forces on March 28 of the same year.
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.”
Eeyore toy
Usyk’s wife and three children, Kyrylo, Mykhalio and Yelizaveta, live in the capital, Kyiv.
Unlike Fury’s wife Paris, who has appeared in reality shows with her husband, Kateryna stays out of the limelight.
Usyk often speaks about how much he loves her and their children.
Sometimes he can be seen clutching a cuddly Eeyore toy which was given to him by his daughter after the Russian invasion separated them.
The dedicated, incredibly fit pugilist has been getting up at 4.45am every day to get in shape for the biggest bout of his career.
And before he walks out to the roaring crowd for a second time on Saturday, the spirit of his late father could be with him.
Usyk said, with tears in his eyes: “Sometimes he comes to me the day before the fight. Yes, sometimes he comes the day before the fight and smiles.”