Oleksandr Usyk has now completed boxing by becoming undisputed cruiserweight and heavyweight world champion.
The Ukrainian great has beaten pretty much all of the best fighters of his era from both weight classes and united all four belts twice.
In his cruiserweight run, Usyk beat Krzysztof Glowacki in Poland to win his first world title in 2016.
He then unified two of the four belts by outpointing Mairis Briedis in Latvia.
Usyk became undisputed champion with a clear win over Murat Gassiev in Russia in 2018.
And then he rounded off his cruiserweight campaign by KOing Tony Bellew in the UK.
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At heavyweight, Usyk started slowly with a win over Chazz Witherspoon in America in 2019.
He upped the ante by beating Derek Chisora on points in 2020 before jumping in with Anthony Joshua.
Usyk outpointed AJ twice in 2021 and 2022 as he claimed three of the four heavyweight belts.
And most recently, he took a split decision triumph over Tyson Fury to become the undisputed king of the division.
After completing his cruiserweight run, Usyk took part in a Twitter Q&A in which he was asked to name the toughest opponent of his career to date.
He simply replied: “Bellew.”
The Brit troubled the Ukrainian early on in that fight.
In the second round, Bellew began to surprise onlookers by landing several, consecutive right hands and even taunting his much-feared opponent.
The Scouser made it clear that he was not in awe of his foe and even switched to a southpaw stance halfway through, before continuing his supremacy in the third.
However, things began to turn from the fourth round onwards, as the champion wobbled the home favourite with a big left hook – a prophetic punch that would come back to haunt him again later on.
The fifth saw some more consistency from Usyk as he seemed to have now solved the puzzle Bellew presented early on.
Usyk carried his dominance through the sixth and seventh as the challenger began to slow down, taking an increasing amount of flush hooks in the process.
In the eigthth, it all came crashing down for Bellew.
One giant left hook put him on the canvas and gave referee Terry O’Connor no option but to bring an end to the bout, and to Bellew’s fantastic career.
His performance was still deserving of great praise though, as few had tested Usyk before that point.
Speaking more recently after beating Fury and Joshua, Usyk was asked the same question again.
This time, he admitted his answer had changed and said Fury was now the toughest fight of his career so far.
On December 21, he will have to face the Gypsy King once again.
