The Oleksandr Usyk Conquerors – Eleven Males Who Beat The Ukrainian In The Amateurs

Since final weekend, followers have debated the place Oleksandr Usyk sits each within the present pound-for-pound rankings and amongst the all-time greats of the heavyweight division, following on from his undisputed title win in opposition to Tyson Fury.

The slick southpaw has gained every of his 22 skilled contests thus far and is unbeaten in competitions since 2009, however right here we take a look at what occurred the eleven males who defeated Usyk on his 335-15 beginner report (dismissing walkovers).

Sergey Sklyarov

Aged simply 18-years-old, Oleksandr Usyk suffered a primary defeat within the amateurs to Russia’s Sergey Sklyarov, dropping 56-38 within the preliminary rounds of the 2005 EABA European Junior Championships.

Sklyarov by no means turned skilled after struggling to seek out any additional beginner success and just lately grew to become each a choose and referee in Russia, scoring 28 bouts since March 2022.

Lukasz Wawrzyczek

4 months later, Usyk would lose for a second time as he was travelled to Poland and was trumped by Lukasz Wawrzyczek on away soil in a middleweight bout – therefore why Tyson Fury famously labelled Usyk as a ‘blown-up middleweight’ within the build-up to their struggle.

‘Luki’ gained the affair by split-decision in what was one among 220 outings as an beginner, turning skilled a couple of months later and competing between the years of 2007-2014.

Surprisingly sufficient, Wawrzyczek usually fought throughout the U.Ok. and Eire throughout the early phases of his profession however struggled when making an attempt to maneuver up from home Polish degree, dropping to fringe contenders comparable to Kamil Szeremeta and Patrick Nielsen in his remaining 12 months as knowledgeable.

In a current interview with talkSPORT, Wawrzyczek reminisced of the time he confronted the now two-division undisputed champion of the world, remembering how he pushed ahead to win the all-important third-round.

“Again within the day I used to be a welterweight, they [the Ukrainian team] stated, ‘Oh, we now have a younger boy, 18 years previous, within the middleweight division, do you need to struggle with him?’ That was Oleksandr Usyk.

“He was already a European junior champion. He was a lot larger than me, however I stated, ‘Yeah, why not, let’s struggle,’ and we did.

“My nationwide staff coach stated, ‘Lukasz, it’s a draw. When you lose this spherical you lose the struggle.’

“So I went the entire spherical [going] ahead and I gained that third spherical and the struggle.”

Omer Aydogan

In February 2006, Usyk made it to the finals of the 50.Bocskai Memorial match in Debrecen, Hungary, defeating Sayed Mohammadzadeh, eventual super-middleweight world title challenger Ronald Gavril and Petrisor Gananau within the rounds prior.

Within the remaining, he was tasked with Turkey’s Ömer Aydogan, the place he misplaced 21-11. Aydogan would by no means make the change to the skilled ranks and was defeated by James DeGale within the semi-finals of the EU championships in 2008.

Mohamed Hikal x2

The one man to twice beat Oleksandr Usyk within the amateurs was Mohamed Hikal, a highly-rated fighter from Egypt. Hikal competed at every of the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic video games, the primary two of these video games being fought within the welterweight division and the latter two being up at middleweight.

In 2005, Hikal upset the percentages to defeat Gennadiy Golovkin to succeed in the semi-finals of the World Newbie Boxing Championships, however picked up the bronze medal after he was outpointed by Ismayl Silakh.

Just a few months later, he defeated Usyk within the remaining of the 2006 Ahmet Comert Event after which once more 5 months on in Azerbaijan, successful comfortably on the playing cards on each events.

Matvey Korobov

At that very same 2005 match, Matvey Korobov was the person to come back out on prime – defeating the identical Ismayl Silakh that overcame Mohamed Hikal, successful the gold medal.

He too would overcome Usyk however extra notably he grew to become the primary fighter to drop the eventual pound-for-pound star and is the one man to have stopped Usyk, pummelling the then 19-year-old till the referee ended the struggle by way of the “Mercy Rule” – this being the inspiration of rumours that Usyk is weak to the physique.

Korobov would win one other world championship in 2007 and turned skilled the next 12 months, though he was unable to beat the professional ranks in the identical means he did the amateurs.

The Russian challenged for the WBO middleweight title in 2014 however was knocked out by Andy Lee and retired after 4 bouts with out a win, the primary of that run being a intently fought battle with Jermall Charlo in 2018 that was scored extraordinarily extensive.

Shawn Porter

The primary of two males to beat Usyk and later change into world champion was America’s Shawn Porter, who compiled a formidable report of 276-14 as an beginner, successful the 2007 Golden Gloves.

Simply earlier than that, Porter confronted Usyk in a four-round affair that was scored by a computerised system, edging out the scrap with a 23-20 factors win. In a 2022 interview, Porter yearned for footage of their encounter to be sourced.