Do we like them?

Do we like Oleksandr Usyk?

Our score: 7 out of 10. Real wartime courage and charity work, with one dated comment about women in combat sports and thin coverage of his wider views.

Usyk was born in Simferopol, Crimea, in 1987, and the family moved north when the Soviet Union collapsed. Money was tight, and it killed his football dream when they couldn't afford the training. His father pointed him to boxing instead, and that's where it all started.

The rise is the stuff of films. He lost at the 2008 Olympic selection stage, then beat the same Italian rival, Clemente Russo, to win gold at London 2012. He turned pro in 2013, cleaned out the cruiserweights, moved up to heavyweight, and has beaten Tyson Fury twice. He is still unbeaten.

The defining moment came in 2022. When Russia invaded, Usyk was in the UK. He flew to Poland, drove to Kyiv and joined a territorial defence battalion. He was persuaded to go back to boxing because wounded soldiers told him he could do more for Ukraine that way. He says he now boxes for the defenders, not the belt.

On the harm test, there's not much to chew on, and he doesn't run culture-war content. The one blemish is an April 2020 report from Ukrainian outlet Znaj.ua, citing an interview with Polish outlet Przegląd Sportowy. It had him saying women should stay out of boxing and combat sports and take up dance, singing or art instead. That reads as dated at best. I found nothing from him on trans or LGBTQ+ people, migrants, vaccines or climate, so that's the gap in the record.

On politics, he has used his platform in public. In a June 2025 CNN interview he asked Donald Trump to “open (your) eyes, help my people” and invited him to stay at his home in Ukraine. That's an appeal over a war, not a swipe at any group of people. It fits a man whose family home was reportedly occupied and ransacked by Russian soldiers.

His most recent fight left a mess. In May 2026 he stopped Rico Verhoeven in the 11th round in Giza, with the bell reportedly already sounded and one scorecard having Verhoeven ahead. Verhoeven filed a protest. Usyk shrugged it off with “it's not my job. My job is boxing.” That's blunt, though it is the ref's call, not his.