After Oleksandr Usyk’s second victory over Tyson Fury in December, the Ukrainian admitted to himself it was time to take a break from the sport.

He had, after all, become the first fighter in history to unify all four heavyweight belts when beating Fury for the first time and then successfully defended three of them – after the IBF all but stripped Usyk and awarded the title to Daniel Dubois – in the rematch. The break, however, was short lived. Four months after defeating Fury again, he signed to fight Dubois at London’s Wembley Stadium on July 19.

“Two weeks,” said Usyk about that 'break' when talking to selected members of the media. “After [the Fury] fight I go to Spain with my guys… I called my wife, ‘Hey, listen. I come home, because I want to go to the gym.’ When I home, I training every day. Sometimes I'm up on the second floor in the house like…”

The Ukrainian then started to shadowbox. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I stay with my wife, I say, ‘Hey, punch me, punch me',” he joked.

Usyk is getting short on challengers, after having already beaten Dubois out in Poland in 2023, as well as Fury and Anthony Joshua, both twice. Usyk stopped Dubois inside nine rounds but in the fifth the champion went down heavily from a shot that was ruled below the belt. This is disputed to this day by Team Dubois, who believe it was a legal blow and that Usyk should have been counted out. It remains the only asterisk on an otherwise perfect 23-0 (14 KOs) professional record.

The shot is something Dubois described as “a punch from the Gods”.

“God bless you, Daniel. He shouldn't have said it,” said Usyk on the comment.

Usyk is a former undisputed cruiserweight champion and said the chance to claim that honor a third time is motivation enough to fight Dubois again. Some wonder why he needs to continue fighting, however, after proving everything there is to prove. Yet Dubois will not be his last fight, he will entertain a third encounter with Fury or Joshua afterwards. Then there's more work to do.

“I'm not final in my career, I continue work with boxing,” he said. “I will be training. Listen, you know, professional sportsmen, we’re different people... 23 years I work, just boxing. It's not football, not like judo. For example, Ronaldo [the Brazilian soccer player], he was a good player. Not Cristiano Ronaldo. He's good, fast, dribbling, a skinny guy.

“[Ronaldo] stops [playing] football…” Usyk explained while puffing out his cheeks and gesturing of having a large stomach. “Big man, because Ronaldo is not training every time. Not good condition. It's bad… I want to live long. I want to build in Ukraine a school of boxing. I'm taking care of my health to live a longer life, happy life, but not to be disabled.

“I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't hang out at clubs,” he continued. “When I have free time I spend it with my family playing football and probably break something in the house, which makes my wife quite angry.”

Usyk just wants more from the sport that he has already given his life to. An Olympic gold medal as well as eight professional world titles is not enough for Usyk. The Ukrainian wore a symbolic message on the back of his tracksuit: “Never Enough.” This message, however, means so much more than just titles.

“It's a message to all people, because a lot of people don't work, they just dream,” he said. “I dream, too… When I was young, 14, 13 years old, I worked as a shepherd. I see like a horse in the sky. I said, listen, ‘What's next? I work here, I don't have any opportunity.’ I sit like, ‘What's going on, Oleksander?’ I want to sleep, I want to eat, I want to go to a house. Not like this…” Usyk then demonstrates the small space in which he used to live. “Like sleeping in a box, you know? Two meters by two meters. But I work, every time I work, I change my work… And it's my life. A lot of people say, ‘Hey, you win undisputed, cruiserweight, heavyweight, maybe you stop.’ No, listen, why stop?”

One person who does want to see Usyk walk away is his mother.

“My mama not want me to continue boxing, but I say, ‘hey mama, you want to eat?’” Usyk jokes. “Yeah, but I must go to work.”