THE SHADOWBOXER
The Ring: Is it more of a motivation to make you a better fighter or is it a pressure that you carry? Usyk: Listen, today I have motivation, tomorrow I don’t have motivation, but every day and every time, I have discipline. Motivation is different for everyone. Everyone seeks some kind of motivation, forgetting that when the sun rises, you have to move. The deer runs away from the tiger and the tiger catches up with the deer. Life is simple.
and a nice sports car becomes better with age. It becomes more expensive and more precious and becomes unbelievably beautiful. The Ring: But at a certain point it stops getting better. How does that feel? You’re 37. I’ve interviewed Roy Jones and Mike Tyson, many great boxers at a certain point in their careers. This is a very demanding and dangerous profession. Do you think about the end of your career at this point?
you could’ve had an iconic knockout and it seemed taken? Usyk: Listen, boxing is hard sport. I have big respect for my opponent, Tyson Fury. Maybe the referee helped Fury, because my last punch can be the last. Maybe, I don’t know. I think Fury is husband, he is father, he’s good man. Yeah, Tyson Fury, a lot of talk, but it’s not my problem and it’s not our people’s problem. Maybe
it’s a problem and maybe it’s not a problem for only Fury. But a lot of people talk, “Hey, this referee is bad,” blah, blah, blah … No. The referee [is doing his job]. I don’t have questions for referee. I win. Thank you, God. We win, my team win. Thank you, God. All good. Now we have a new preparation. The Ring: You’ve only had six fights as a heavyweight so far in your career. Is it strange to already be talked about as the greatest heavyweight of your era, and some people saying one of the greatest heavyweights of all time with just six fights? Usyk: It doesn’t matter how many fights you have. It only matters how you do your job. The Ring: You don’t think longevity is important in a great champion? Usyk: (switches to Ukrainian) For me, it’s important to remain who I am. If I am champion of the world, glory to God. If I am not champion of the world, then also glory to God. For me, it’s important to be a human. I’m not going to be good to everyone; the most important thing is that I am good for my family. A lot of people say that it’s for legacy – they want to do this and they want to do that. I box solely for myself because I like it. But right now, I box for my country, for Ukraine, for the ones closest to me, for the soldiers who defend our country, and for those who like me and for those who don’t like me too.
Usyk: It’s not hard yet, but as soon as I receive a sign from God that it is hard for me and I don’t want to wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning anymore, I’ll immediately understand, for I am not a greedy person. I have brains. I have a lot of kids (he and his wife, Yekaterina, have two sons and two daughters). And when I receive the sign from God saying, “Sasha, it’s enough,” I will certainly tell the world about it and I will start working in a different direction.
“Everyone seeks some kind of motivation, forgetting that when the sun rises, you have to move. The deer runs away from the tiger and the tiger catches up with the deer. Life is simple.”
The Ring: I interviewed Roy Jones before his career was over and he said the same thing. God would tell him when his career was over. During an examination of his brain, God would produce a problem as a sign he should stop. I asked him a question I would like to ask you: Has God ever told you no? Usyk: Yes, sometimes he did not let me get or did not give me something that I wanted. But after hard work and better understanding, he lets me get what I want. I will give you a good example. When I went to my first Olympic games, I was about 20, 21 years old. The first fight I won, but I lost the semifinals. I know for sure if back then I became the Olympic champion right away, you would never see me again and we would not be talking right now and I would not be giving this interview. But God has stopped me and made me go a different way. I started working on
The Ring: Do you think this will be your last fight if you beat or knock out Fury in the coming rematch? Do you have anything more to prove or desire to continue fighting after this? Usyk: Not if, but when! There is a lot to prove to myself, most importantly. There is a lot to prove. This is a regimen. It’s waking up in the morning when everyone is still asleep. When the road is still dark. That’s when you go hard. When you arrive at the gym, you work yourself to exhaustion. When it gets hard, you run and say to yourself, “Hey Sashko, you can do it. So run, brother.” In order for the sports car to be always running, it has to be driven. It cannot stand somewhere in a garage. It should be driven. It should be lubricated. You fix it a bit by changing tires or some other parts in order for the sports car to run/work properly,
28
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator