Oleksandr Usyk suggested his wife was responsible for his victory over Tyson Fury in a subtle dig at the Brit – after the Gypsy King ignored his beloved Paris for three months.
Fury locked himself away in an intensive camp and claimed he had not spoken to his wife Paris, who he married in 2008 and has seven kids with.
The pair were finally reunited on Thursday night at the pre-fight press conference but their coalition did not inspire Fury to victory on Saturday in Riyadh.
Usyk won 116-112 on all three of the judges’ scorecards to retain his WBA, WBC, and WBO heavyweight belts, winning 16 of the last 18 available rounds in the second half of the fight.
Asked what the key to that stamina was, he said: ‘I don’t know, maybe I train. Good prepare. My wife helps me (smiles).
In the build-up to the fight, Usyk revealed that he had not actually seen his wife Yekaterina (Katerina) for five months, but said they spoke every day.
Oleksandr Usyk credited his wife Katerina for helping him beat Tyson Fury on Saturday night
It was a subtle dig, perhaps, at Fury, who said he had not even spoken to his wife Paris for three months as he geared up for the fight
Usyk beat the Gypsy King 116-112 on all three of the judges’ scorecards to retain his belts
He and Katerina have been married for 15 years and have four children: sons Kyrylo and Mykhalio and daughters Yelizaveta and Maria, whose birth he missed preparing for the first contest between himself and Fury.
‘It’s helped me – because it’s my family,’ the Ukrainian said.
‘My little daughter, Maria, started to walk, say ‘mama’, ‘baba’ [grandmother]. This is real motivation for me.’
Elite athletes often face time away from loved ones but it is a particularly felt theme in boxing, where fighters withdraw for long periods of time and demand unyielding focus of themselves.
Fury revealed in October that his wife Paris suffered a miscarriage on the eve of his first fight with Usyk in May, but that he was only told when he returned home.
‘She was six months pregnant. It’s not like a small miscarriage at the beginning – you have to physically give birth to a dead child, on your own, while your husband is in a foreign country.
‘To go through that on your own isn’t good.’
Paris usually attends the Gypsky King’s fights but he knew something was wrong when she was not ringside for that first bout in Riyadh, which he lost via split decision.
Fury claimed afterwards that he had won both of his fights against the Ukrainian this year
In October he revealed that Paris had had a miscarriage with their eighth child on the eve of his first fight against Usyk in May
Usyk has four kids with his wife, Yekaterina, who he spoke to ‘every day’ in the build-up
He said: ‘I said to my brother “she’s lost that baby”. She never told me she had lost the baby, but I knew.
‘When I got back I got the inevitable confirmation that it was gone, but she had kept it to herself.’
Fury added: ‘I could not be there for her in that moment. And that’s tough for me.
‘I have been with the woman for longer than I wasn’t with her, so it’s hard that I couldn’t be there with her in that time.’
Fury once again went the distance with Usyk on Saturday night and was praised by pundits for raising his game, though the scorecards handed him a distant defeat.
Fury stormed out of the ring after learning the result and later told Sky Sports that he felt he had won by three rounds, while co-promoter Frank Warren called a defeat by that margin ‘impossible’.
In the press conference, Fury was asked what’s next for him after coming up short in undisputed and then unified title fights, signalling the first losses of his entire professional career.
‘I thought I won that fight. I thought I won both fights but I’m going home with two losses on my record. There’s not much I can do about it. I can just fight my heart out,’ he said.
‘I will believe ’til the day I die that I won that fight. I was aggressive, on the front foot all night, landing to the body and head. Frank Warren [his promoter] had me three or four rounds up. A lot of people had me at least two rounds up. But I’m not going to cry over spilled milk. I can’t change the decision. When you don’t get the KO this is what happens: you can’t guarantee a win
‘You might see me fight again, you might not,’ he cryptically answered. Many fans will hope his future involves a long-awaited dust-up with Anthony Joshua.
