Oleksandr Usyk has stepped out of the boxing ring to serve his country.
The boxing heavyweight champion is doing whatever he can to help out Ukraine, as they seek to defend against military forces from Russia. Usyk would join the fight alongside fellow Ukrainian boxers such as Vasiliy Lomachenko and the Klitschko brothers.
The war between Russia and Ukraine looks to be getting worse every day. More and more casualties are being lost. Even so, Usyk says he has no fear amid all of the chaos. He says ‘his honor belongs to his country’.
Left With No Choice
While Usyk is fighting for his country, the boxer doesn’t like the idea of killing people. But if worse comes to worse, he claims he’ll be able to pull the trigger.
“If they will want to take my life, or the lives of my close ones, I will have to do it,” Usyk told CNN. “But I don’t want that. I don’t want to shoot, I don’t want to kill anybody, but if they will be killing me, I will have no choice.
“Maybe it’ll sound sentimental, but my soul belongs to the Lord and my body and my honor belong to my country, to my family. So there is no fear, absolutely no fear. There’s just bafflement – how could this be in the 21st century?”
Bombings
In the same interview, Usyk would also react to the recent bombing of Mariupol, a city in Ukraine.
“The bombing around is crazy,” Usyk continued. “They just bombed the city of Mariupol, one of my friends got a rocket in his roof. [The Russians] are not playing games.
“Russian people don’t really know exactly what’s going on here. They’re not seeing what’s going on. They are victims of their President [Vladimir Putin].”