Oleksandr Usyk drops retirement hint as he is looking past Tony Bellew

Oleksandr Usyk is looking past his opponent Tony Bellew for their fight this Saturday towards a bigger one in the future against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Usyk (15-0, 11 KOs) says he plans on immediately retiring from the sport of boxing after he unifies the heavyweight division. ”I need to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world,” Usyk said to Seconds Out. ”As soon as I become [undisputed heavyweight champion after beating Anthony Joshua], I will turn back and say, ‘Guys, thank you very much for your participation, thanks to everyone.’ I will go to the ground and say, ‘Thanks a lot.’ I will go home,” Usyk said. “I became the undisputed cruiserweight champion of the world, but it’s not the final step for me,” Usyk said. “It’s just the end of one stage. I’m on my way to a final step to Anthony Joshua. My company with which I belong to K2 Promotions, has signed the co-promotional deal with Matchroom for several fights, and I think they did discuss this [fight] opportunity, and they’re in the process of discussing it at this moment. I’m confident this fight is under discussion. A lot of people say I shouldn’t go up in weight, that I’m too small for it, my size doesn’t allow me to be victorious in this division. All my life I’ve been hearing the scepticism, ‘you should not do this, you will not succeed at this,” Usyk said. “Not just before the Tony Bellew fight, I had sparring partners from the heavyweight division before the [Murat] Gassiev fight, and I got used to that,” Usyk said about the sparring he’s done against heavyweights. ”Wladimir Klitschko, it’s an honour for me to box like him. I was learning so many things. He tries to teach me so many things,” Usyk said.

Bellew: “Usyk’s four belts are coming home with me”