Usyk claims injured soldiers gave him their blessing for Joshua rematch

Oleksandr Usyk plans to return to the squared circle next month with the hopes of a nation on his shoulders. According to the world…

By: Karim Zidan | 11 months ago
Usyk claims injured soldiers gave him their blessing for Joshua rematch
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Oleksandr Usyk plans to return to the squared circle next month with the hopes of a nation on his shoulders.

According to the world heavyweight champion, it was injured Ukrainian soldiers who gave him their blessing to take on Anthony Joshua amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

“I went to the hospital where soldiers were wounded and getting rehabilitation from the war,” Usyk told a group of reporters, according to Reuters. “They were asking me to go, to fight, to fight for the country, fight for your pride and if you’re going to go there, you’re even going to help more for our country.”

Usyk is widely regarded as one of the best Ukrainian boxers of all time, having defeated Joshua in 2021 to capture the unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles.

However, when Russia launched its war in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Usyk returned to Ukraine and joined the country’s territorial defense battalion. He was later allowed to leave the country to prepare for his rematch against Anthony Joshua, which is expected to take place on August 20 in Saudi Arabia.

While Usyk would prefer to stay and fight alongside his countrymen, he understands that a victory against Joshua would go a long way to raise Ukrainian morale.

“I really didn’t want to leave our country, I didn’t want to leave our city,” Usyk said. “I know a lot of my close people, friends, close friends, are right now in the front line and fighting. What I’m doing right now, I’m just supporting them, and with this fight, I wanted to bring them some kind of joy in between what they do.”

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About the author
Karim Zidan
Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.

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