Oleksandr Usyk: “The most terrible opponent is me!”

On the YouTube channel of the former absolute heavyweight champion (up to 90.7 kg), holder of the IBF / WBO / WBA heavyweight titles (over 90.7 kg) Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs)
video appeared with quotes from a boxer in different years of professional and amateur careers.

Alexander shared his memories of childhood, the first fight, conversations with his father, told about the pain, fear, doubts about him around him and the most terrible opponent. Your attention is the text version of the video from vRINGe.com.

“I told my mother that I would buy a helicopter. We will fly in a helicopter. I dreamed of some kind of big stadium, a performance. I thought about it, yes. But I lived in the village and thought that it was generally impossible. With these hands I I will do it for myself, for life. But then I was playing football. One could say “with my feet”, but for some reason I said “with my hands”. But this is how the Almighty ordered from above and sent me along this path of boxing. I thank him every day in prayer for the fact that he drew such a path for me, gave me, sent me.

“I lost the first fight. I thought to myself:“ No, probably not mine. ”But my father thought differently. And that’s it, he talked with me. He even spoke a little. you’ll be better off. Just go all the way. What do you want? Just go and try””.

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“I say that I want a gold medal. He says: “What will happen if you don’t win a gold medal?” I sat like that – one, one: “How can I not win? I’ll win!” He says: “Well, there are different situations. Here you will return with silver. “I say:” Yes, I do not agree to this. “That is, I understand that something is not right here. And then he told me:” What can you not live without: without a family or without a gold medal ? I said: “Of course, the gold medal is not a priority at all. Naturally, this is a family.” He: “That’s good. Your family needs a gold medal.”

“The most important thing is that you don’t need to stop and you can’t stop before what you are going to. To your dream, to your desires. What you gave birth to here in your head, in your heart, in yourself. You can’t change your dream.”

“Of course, I’m fighting with myself. I wake up in the morning, I think I can still sleep? But the enemy gets up, and I have to get up too. When I wake up in the morning, my alarm clock plays, the alarm says: “Get up, champion.”

“I talk with pain. Do you know what I say to her? She is weaker than me. I laugh at her. Inside myself, I laugh at her. It feels like I’m a little crazy. Everyone has fear. If you’re not afraid, then you’re sick. But there’s the fear of cowardice, and there’s the fear that turns you on.”

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“So I haven’t achieved what I wanted yet. I’m still going to it.”

“When I win all the belts in cruiserweight, I will definitely try my hand at heavyweight. A lot of people tell me: “You shouldn’t go there. You are not a natural heavyweight. You are small. You won’t succeed.” Throughout my life, I hear from many people that I won’t succeed. But it just doesn’t work out for those who don’t try to do it. I will not listen to those who tell me not to do it. I will do the opposite and I will definitely succeed, because I believe in it.”

“This is the most terrible drug. It cannot be cured. I enter the ring liberated, free. It’s like locking a bird in a small cage, keeping it for a while, and then leaving for some big field, open the cage for it and look, how she will fly, how she will flap her magnificent wings, soar into the sky, spin, get high. That’s something that happens to me when I enter the ring.”

“The most terrible opponent is me!”