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Oleksandr Usyk is considering a different challenge for his final fight to cap off a stellar career.
Usyk is one of the greatest boxers of all time and certainly the best of his generation. He ended his amateur career with an Olympic gold medal, and six years later he swept the competition in the cruiserweight division to become the absolute champion in 2018.
Six years later he repeated the same success in the heavyweight division when he defeated Tyson Fury in May 2024.
In July, he will face Daniel Dubois in a new fight for the absolute champion, with the goal of regaining the IBF belt that he had to vacate ahead of his rematch with Fury in December last year.
One of the fighters who has requested a fight with Usyk is YouTuber and boxer Jake Paul, who suggested that the Ukrainian be dealt with under MMA rules.
Usyk on accepting Paul's challenge
Speaking on Game Time with Boomer Esiason, Usyk admitted that he had no problem accepting Paul's challenge under MMA rules.
- Listen, my first sport is not boxing, but wrestling. My father was a soldier. He taught me street fighting, knife handling, shooting. I said, 'Dad, what are we doing?' And he says, 'We're preparing.' 'For what?' 'For life.' I use jiu-jitsu, karate, wrestling, kickboxing, street fighting. (Jake Paul?) No problem. No problem.
If Usyk is successful in the fight against Dubois, he will have to decide if he wants to fight against the mandatory challenger Joseph Parker or if he will go in the direction of the show, that is, the clash with Jake Paul.
The question is how realistic it is that there will be a fight between the two according to MMA rules. There is no doubt that such a show would break previous records and create real chaos on the fighting scene. The Ukrainian seems open to various options, but primarily he needs to do the match with Parker and only then focus on unusual challenges.
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