Five things you didn’t know about Oleksandr Usyk

Interesting facts about Tony Bellew’s opponent

All eyes will be on Manchester this Saturday, as Tony Bellew takes on Oleksandr Usyk for the WBC, IBF, WBA, WBO and Ring Magazine world titles.

The Merseysider is the 4/1 outsider for the fight, against 1/6 for the Ukrainian. You can watch the cruiserweight bout live on Sky Sports Box Office. But before that, let us take you through five things you might not know about Bellew’s opponent.

He’s an Olympic Gold medallist

Usyk is a veteran of two Olympic Games. His 2008 bow in Beijing produced a silver medal after defeat to Clemente Russo in the final. But he got his own back four years later in London.

The Southpaw beat Artur Beterbiev and Tervel Pulev on his way to a rematch with Russo in the 91kg heavyweight competition. He then faced Russo again; this time edging the contest 14-11 for Ukraine’s fifth gold medal of the 2012 Olympics.

Only boxer to hold all four cruiserweight titles

Terence Crawford, Jermain Taylor, Bernard Hopkins and Cecilia Braekhus have all held the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles simultaneously. But Usyk in the first boxer ever to hold the four belts solely in the cruiserweight division.

He picked up the WBO title against Krzysztof Glowacki in 2016. Since then he’s added the WBC title against Mairis Briedis and the WBA and IBF titles when beating Murat Gassiev in Moscow earlier this year.

He has an amateur record of 335-15