Oleksandr Usyk has ranked his London 2012 Olympic gold medal glory above his victory over Anthony Joshua last year.
Usyk will take on his next test in the heavyweight division next Saturday when he rematches Joshua at the Jeddah Super Dome, Saudi Arabia. It will be the first defence that Usyk will make of his unified heavyweight world titles after dominating the Briton to win them last September.
The Ukrainian made the switch up to heavyweight in 2019 after reigning as undisputed cruiserweight world champion which is one of several notable achievements in the sensational career of the champion. However Usyk believes his recent achievements will only rank highest if he becomes undisputed king at a second weight. "I consider Olympic gold in amateurs to be the highest achievement in my career," Usyk said when ranking his highest career achievements in an interview with Parimatch.
"There is nothing higher for me at the moment, including my belts in cruiserweight or those I have in heavyweight. Maybe if I combine the belts in a heavyweight and get all four I will think about which is higher: Olympic gold or all four heavyweights? I think that every boxer would like to box in a heavyweight division.
"Whoever has the opportunity will take it, and whoever does not will dream of it. When I was boxing at cruiserweight, I told myself that when I won all four belts in the division, I would move up to heavyweight. I kept my word and moved to heavyweight." Usyk became Olympic heavyweight champion as an amateur at the London 2012 Games where he defeated Clemente Russo of Italy in the final to pick up the gold medal.
Along the way to glory, he defeated unified light-heavyweight world champion Artur Beterbiev and Tervel Pulev which cemented his place in the history books. His rise then continued to cruiserweight as a professional where he unified the entire division defeating the likes of Mairis Briedis and Michael Hunter.
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He then outclassed British star Tony Bellew before making the switch to heavyweight where he has already defeated Derek Chisora and Joshua last September. Usyk remains undefeated and was yet to face any significant testing moments against 'AJ' in their first meeting.
However Usyk will understand he faces another sizeable task with Joshua having changed his trainer from Rob McCracken to Robert Garcia in a bid to secure redemption in the Middle East. Despite critics taking apart Joshua's performance, Usyk has revealed he fell asleep immediately after the challenging fight in the UK.
It was a really difficult fight for me,” Usyk said. “Everybody keeps saying it was an easy walk, but, no, it wasn’t. It was a hard fight for him and for me. After the fight I came back to the hotel and I took some food and I fall asleep sitting [up].”
