'Thank you for the inspiration': Zelensky hails Ukrainian boxer Usyk's big win

Ukrainian boxer Olesksandr Usyk basked in the adulation following his fifth round knockout win over Britain's Daniel Dubois at London's Wembley Stadium on Saturday night. It was the latest dazzling victory of a career that has seen him emerge as a national hero in his war-torn homeland.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky was among the first to congratulate Usyk on his victory.

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"An undisputed champion. A legend. One of our own," Zelensky wrote on X.

"Thank you for the strength and inspiration you give to the whole country with every victory. Thank you for stepping into each fight with Ukraine in your heart."

Usyk said "discipline" rather than "motivation" was fuelling his desire to box on after he underlined his status as the supreme heavyweight of his generation.

Saturday's success saw the 38-year-old Ukrainian become the undisputed heavyweight world champion for the second time in a career of 24 wins from as many professional fights as he deprived Dubois of his IBF title in commanding fashion.

It was also the second time he had beaten Dubois, at 27 some 11 years his junior.

And with Usyk having also twice defeated another British world heavyweight champion in Tyson Fury, many are asking what challenges are left for him to conquer in the ring.   

Usyk told a post-fight press conference that while he was looking forward to an extended rest, and was unsure of his next opponent, he still wanted to continue his brilliant career.

"I prepare three-and-a-half months, I don't see my family, my wife," he said. "Every day I live with my team, with 14 guys, in one house, every day only one face.

"Now I want to go back home, now I want to make a choice, what next, I will continue boxing, I will continue training. 

"I don't have motivation, I have discipline, motivation is temporary, today for example, today you have motivation, tomorrow wake up early, you don't have motivation, but when I wake up early in the morning in training, I never have motivation, I have only discipline, because when I wake up, my team too, wake up and we go to training."

Saturday's success was Usyk's latest triumph in Britain, where he won Olympic heavyweight gold at the 2012 London Games.

"For me, the UK is like a second home because this is where I won all my trophies," he said.

"European champion, amateur boxing, London 2012, Tony Bellew, Derek Chisora, Anthony Joshua and now three-time undisputed Champion," added Usyk, who previously unified the cruiserweight division.

"I'm very grateful for this country."

'Once in a generation'

Dubois did not attend the post-fight press conference, with veteran British promoter Frank Warren speaking on his behalf.

Warren insisted Dubois' career was far from finished.

"I look back at Frank Bruno, for example, three times he fought for the world title, and he got it in the fourth attempt. And Daniel, he's won a world title, so hopefully he will come back and learn from it."

There were suggestions before the fight that Usyk's age would count against him.

"We were all hoping that, you know, we're Brits, you know, he (Dubois) is a British fighter, I was hoping that," said Warren.

"But he (Usyk), he's got really strong resilience. I mean, he's a unique guy, isn't he? He's undefeated still, 38 years of age.

"He's a tremendous, tremendous fighter. And fighters like him come along once in a generation."

Usyk, now a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion -- and three times in all after previously mastering the cruiserweight division -- dominated the opening four rounds.

And early in the fifth he dropped Dubois to the canvas.

Moments later he finished the fight in decisive fashion after a trademark left hook left his British rival unable to beat the count one minute and 52 seconds into the round.

Usyk's previous win against Dubois came in 2023 following a ninth-round stoppage in Krakow, Poland, where the Briton was ruled to have landed an illegal low blow in the fifth round.

Lennox Lewis, the last British boxer to be undisputed world champion in 1999, forecast before Saturday's fight that Usyk would face a vastly-improved Dubois, saying: "Dubois was a baby in the sport and now he’s a man...You're not going to see the same Daniel Dubois from 18 months ago."

But after Usyk was roared into the ring by a huge contingent of supporters, many of them waving Ukraine national flags in a 90,000 capacity crowd at Wembley, best known as the London base of England's national football team, it was largely one-way traffic as their hero conducted a ruthless masterclass against local favourite Dubois.

"38 is a young guy, remember!,"  Usyk told DAZN in the ring after dropping to his knees in celebration. "38 is only start!

"I want to say thank you to Jesus Christ. I want to say thank you to my team and Wembley, thank you so much! It's for the people.

"Nothing is next. It's enough, next, I don't know. I want to rest. My family, my wife, my children, I want to rest now. Two or three months, I want to just rest."