WBO names Ukraine’s Crimean puncher Usyk ‘fighter of the year’

The 28-year-old
southpaw’s promoter, K2 Promotions, established by brothers Vitali and Wladimir
Klitschko, announced the news on its website. Alexander Krassyuk, the vaunted boxer’s manager, accepted the award in Usyk’s place because the Simferopol native is
currently training in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast mountain resort of Bukovel for
his next fight taking place in December.

K2 spokeswoman Olha Savelieva declined to say who his next opponent would be when contacted by the Kyiv Post on Oct. 28.

Winner of
the heavyweight gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics, Usyk is ranked number
one in his weight class on WBO’s ranking. Poland’s Krzysztof Glowacki is the
current WBO junior heavyweight champion.

The World Boxing Organization award that names Oleksandr Usyk the “intercontinental fighter of the year” in Orlando, Florida. (K2 Promotions)

Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can
be reached at [email protected].

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Mark Raczkiewycz

Mark was a reporter and editor for the Kyiv Post from 2006 to 2016 and still contributes as a freelancer. The native Chicagoan has bylines with the Financial Times, Bloomberg News, Associated Press, Ukrainian Weekly, Irish Times, and Ukraine Business Insight, among other publications. He is a former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, a graduate of St. Norbert College in Wisconsin, and fluent in the Ukrainian and Russian languages.