2024 Fighter of Year: Oleksandr Usyk
Plus the 6 honorable mentions in order; past winners year by year
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Flash back to 2018, a magical year for Oleksandr Usyk, who was part of the eight-man World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight tournament and on his way to becoming the undisputed champion.
It was a huge year for him. He outpointed then-unbeaten Mairis Briedis in a close fight to unify the WBO and WBC titles on Briedis’ turf in Riga, Latvia; romped to a shockingly easy near-shutout of then-unbeaten Murat Gassiev on his turf in Moscow to win the tournament and become the first four-belt undisputed cruiserweight champion; and then traveled to Tony Bellew’s home country of England to defend the undisputed crown with a sensational one-punch knockout in the eighth round.
Usyk’s fantastic year for the ages made him the consensus fighter of the year, and now here we are, six years later, and he has again made history by becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion and beating Tyson Fury twice. Usyk was the no-brainer choice as 2024 Fight Freaks Unite fighter of the year.
Heading into 2024, Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs), 37, the 2012 Ukrainian Olympic gold medalist, was already the three-belt unified heavyweight titleholder, having taken the belts from Anthony Joshua in 2021, retained them in an immediate rematch in 2022, and then knocked out Daniel Dubois in the ninth round in 2023.
Finally, the stage was set for Usyk to face lineal/WBC champion Fury for ultimate heavyweight supremacy and the undisputed championship. There were many issues along the way to making the fight, but when Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, who was spearheading the country’s nine-figure investment into boxing, got involved a two-fight deal was made in short order.