Ukrainian boxer Alexander Usyk has lost his undisputed world champion status after voluntarily relinquishing his WBO belt, the World Boxing Organization said in an official statement.
“The World Boxing Organization (WBO) has announced that it has received official notification from Alexander Usyk’s team regarding the future of the WBO heavyweight championship title. After careful consideration, Usyk has decided to relinquish the title,” the statement on social media platform X said.
WBO President Gustavo Olivieri called Usyk “the champion of champions” in his comment.
“The WBO expresses its deep respect, admiration, and gratitude to Alexander Usyk, the undefeated WBO world champion in two weight classes, who has earned and demonstrated all the rights, privileges, and honors associated with the title of WBO super champion. His career is one of the most outstanding and historic in the modern era of boxing,“ he said.
The WBO emphasized in its statement that the organization’s doors ”will always remain open.“
”We accept and respect his decision to relinquish the WBO heavyweight super champion title. This is not a farewell, but, as his team put it, a respectful pause. The doors of the WBO will always remain open to Alexander Usyk and his team,” the organization said.
Usyk still remains the champion in the WBA, WBC, and IBF categories.
Alexander Usyk won the title of undisputed world champion by defeating Daniel Dubois by knockout in the fifth round of the fight.
The fight was for the WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO undisputed heavyweight world titles. It was a rematch: the boxers first met in the ring in August 2023, when Usyk knocked out Dubois in the ninth round. Usyk regained the IBF title, which he had been forced to relinquish because he was unable to defend it at the time, and defended his titles in the other three divisions.
The session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has unanimously voted to include boxing in the program of the 2028 Olympic Games to be held in the United States.
“Thank you for approving the return of boxing to the Olympic program. We look forward to a great Olympic boxing tournament,” IOC President Thomas Bach said after the vote.
Bach noted that the competition will be organized by the World Boxing Federation. World Boxing was founded in 2023 after the severance of relations between the IOC and the International Boxing Association (IBA). The 2028 Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles from July 14 to 30.
The V Summer All-Ukrainian Boxing Gymnasium took place in Uman, where boys and juniors from Ukraine and Kyiv took part.
The following boxers became champions from Kyiv:
? Kirill Tkachuk, 2010, 1st category, 42 kg
? Mykola Dobrolyubov, 2009, 1st category, 66 kg
? Pasichenko Oleksandr, 2008, KMS, 48 kg
? Adrian Krasnopilskyi, 2008, KMS, 54 kg
? Konstantin Gayevsky, 2009, 1st category, 54 kg
? Maidukov Mark, 2009, 1st category, 48 kg
? Kravchenko Mykyta, 2010, 1st category, 57 kg
The President of the Kyiv City Federation Oleksandr Nehoda congratulated the young Kyiv residents on their victory.
“We have a good team and systematic work, which is aimed at constantly holding open rings where our boxers can gain combat practice,” said Oleksandr Nehoda.
According to the president of the boxing federation, the next events that athletes and coaches are preparing for are the World Gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), which will take place on August 19-27, as well as the European Championships in Maribor (Slovenia), which will take place on August 15-26, 2023.
The gymnasium is held to stimulate the development of physical culture and sports among students of general secondary education institutions of the II-III levels.
The cooperation between the Kyiv Boxing Federation and the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture opens up new opportunities for the comprehensive development of students. This partnership is a model of how the academic and sports worlds can come together to achieve a common goal. This opinion was expressed by Oleksandr Nehoda, President of the Kyiv Boxing Federation, and Petro Kulikov, Rector of the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency in Kyiv on Thursday.
According to Oleksandr Nehoda, the state’s support of Ukrainian athletes at international competitions is insufficient.
“The state and the Ministry (of Youth and Sports – ed.) allocate funds, and there is also support for young athletes through universities, but this is usually not enough. When we were preparing to participate in the European Games, the funding for meals per day per athlete was 410 hryvnias. With such funds, it is impossible to follow a specialized sports diet. Therefore, we (Kyiv Boxing Federation – ed.) had to purchase a significant part of the food on our own. The same applies to other supplies for the athletes,” Nehoda emphasized.
According to the KFB President, the problem of financing high-quality training of athletes requires a systematic approach from both the state and private sponsors and patrons.
In his turn, the rector of the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, Petro Kulikov, emphasized that his university has created a unique system of support for youth sports and healthy lifestyles, and is improving its sports infrastructure.
“In recent years, KNUBA has hosted several major boxing tournaments among youth and juniors. In addition, we have developed a unique system of cooperation with the Kyiv Boxing Federation and provide premises and training facilities for both accommodation and training of young athletes. To this end, when we opened the stadium, we also opened a hotel with 50 beds to accommodate athletes from different regions of Ukraine,” he said.
Mr. Kulikov also emphasized that cooperation with sports federations should be one of the main areas of development for Ukrainian universities. This is due to both the need to popularize sports and healthy lifestyles among young people and the need to create a strong training base for Ukrainian athletes to participate in international competitions.
“Thanks to our cooperation with federations, sports such as football, basketball and boxing have begun to reach students on a large scale. My fellow rectors and I are doing our best to develop sports in our educational institutions, hold competitions and build sports facilities even in this difficult time,” the rector summarized.
Oleksandr Nehoda added that thanks to Kulikov’s initiative and the existing infrastructure, KNUBA managed to keep many promising boxers in Ukraine, including the Ukrainian youth champion Bohdan Gorgol, who won all his fights ahead of schedule.
“During all of our recent tournaments, we have been proving to both juniors and their parents that the educational and sports facilities created at KNUBA allow not only boxing, but also high-quality higher education, as KNUBA provides preferential admission to students of our boxing school. So, this year 15 of our boys and girls became students. In addition, it is interesting that the leaders of the Kyiv team today are largely from other regions of Ukraine, who, thanks to the KNUBA facilities, can both study and develop in boxing,” Nehoda emphasized.
In his opinion, the development of student boxing is of utmost importance, as this sport is the foundation of both Olympic and professional boxing.
BOXING, KNUBA, KYIV BOXING FEDERATION, SPORTS, ОЛЕКСАНДР_НЕГОДА, ПЕТРО_КУЛІКОВ
Ukrainian Yuriy Zakhareev has won a gold medal at the European Boxing Championship among athletes under the age of 22, which takes place in Croatia.
“On March 23, the final bouts of the European U22 Boxing Championship took place in Croatia. Ukrainian Yuriy Zakhareev became the European champion in the weight category up to 71 kg. In the fight for the gold our boxer defeated an opponent from Wales, Garan Croft,” the press service of the Ministry of Youth and Sports said in a statement.
Earlier silver medals were won by Andriy Yefymovich (weight category up to 48 kg), Maksym Vlasiuk (weight category up to 60 kg) and Ivan Sapun (weight category up to 86 kg).
According to the results of the continental championship competitions, the Ukrainian boxing team won ten medals: two gold, three silver and five bronze.
