{"id":39004,"date":"2026-06-26T20:04:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Oleksandr-Usyk-to-vacate-all-belts-seeks-one-last-dance-retirement-match-201655"},"modified":"2026-06-26T20:04:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T20:04:41","slug":"oleksandr-usyk-to-vacate-all-belts-seeks-one-last-dance-retirement-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/oleksandr-usyk-to-vacate-all-belts-seeks-one-last-dance-retirement-match\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk to vacate all belts, seeks \u2018one last dance\u2019 retirement match"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Oleksandr Usyk wants to go out with a bang.<\/p>\n

Turning 40 years of age in January, unified heavyweight boxing
\nchampion Usyk (25-0, 16 KOs) has decided to relinquish his WBA, WBC
\nand IBF belts. The Ukrainian wishes for those next in line to vie
\nfor his old belts, while he has his sights set on one final bout.
\nHe has not tipped his hat as to whether it would be a rematch
\nagainst a former foe like Rico
\nVerhoeven<\/a> or Tyson Fury<\/a>,
\nor even if there would be any gold on the line for his final
\nbout.<\/p>\n

Usyk took the boxing world by storm, crushing names like Tony
\nBellew and Chazz Witherspoon as a cruiserweight before moving up to
\nthe heaviest division. There, he picked up the WBO intercontinental
\nstrap from Derek Chisora in 2020, and looked nowhere but up. A year
\nlater, the 18-0 big man challenged Anthony
\nJoshua<\/a> for the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO belts, and he claimed them
\nall by picking up a decision after 12 rounds of combat.<\/p>\n

Rematches upon rematches upon rematches<\/h2>\n

The newly minted unified heavyweight champion achieved this feat by
\nwinning the rematch with Joshua to score the vacant The Ring
\nmagazine belt. Most of the last boxing matches in the career of the
\n6-foot-3 striker have been rematches, as he faced Joshua twice,
\nFury twice and Daniel
\nDubois<\/a> twice in his last seven outings. He has won them all,
\nalthough earned more than one close nod to break ties with
\njudges.<\/p>\n

In May, Usyk departed from the traditional list of contenders and
\nmandatory defenses to throw down with \u201cThe King of Kickboxing\u201d
\nRico
\nVerhoeven<\/a>. The one-bout boxing vet acquitted himself extremely
\nwell in the match, winning most of the rounds on many observers\u2019
\nscorecards. Usyk ultimately was granted an early knockdown of
\nVerhoeven late in their match that allowed the Dutchman to recover
\nmore than standard. He also had the fight stopped early in his
\nfavor due to questionable refereeing, with the intervention coming
\nafter the bell rang in the midst of a not-overly-destructive
\ncombination.<\/p>\n

\u201cFriends, good afternoon, everyone,\u201d Usyk said on a video posted
\nFriday to his social media<\/a>. \u201cToday is Friday the weather is
\nbeautiful and it\u2019s a good day to say that I want to vacate all the
\nbelts I currently hold. I want to make them available so the guys
\nwho are next in line can fight for them. Friends, I\u2019m leaving the
\nbelts, but I\u2019m not leaving the sport, because I still have my last
\ndance. I want to thank everyone, I have great respect for all
\norganizations\u2026there\u2019s more to come! Glory to God, and glory to
\nUkraine!\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

\u0426\u0435 \u0441\u0432\u0456\u0434\u043e\u043c\u0435 \u0440\u0456\u0448\u0435\u043d\u043d\u044f, \u044f\u043a\u0435, \u044f \u0432\u043f\u0435\u0432\u043d\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0439,
\n\u0432\u0456\u0434\u043a\u0440\u0438\u0454 \u0434\u043b\u044f \u043c\u0435\u043d\u0435 \u043d\u043e\u0432\u0456 \u043c\u043e\u0436\u043b\u0438\u0432\u043e\u0441\u0442\u0456. \u0426\u0435 \u043d\u0435 \u043a\u0456\u043d\u0435\u0446\u044c \u0456\u0441\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0456\u0457. \u041f\u0440\u043e\u0434\u043e\u0432\u0436\u0435\u043d\u043d\u044f
\n\u043f\u043e\u043f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0434\u0443.<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

This is a well-considered decision that I am confident will open
\nnew opportunities for me. This is not the end of the story. The
\ncontinuation lies ahead. pic.twitter.com\/tPRRWMsmbh<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Oleksandr Usyk (@usykaa)
\nJune 26, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk wants to go out with a bang. Turning 40 years of age in January, unified heavyweight boxing champion Usyk (25-0, 16 KOs) has decided to relinquish his WBA, WBC and IBF belts. The Ukrainian wishes for those next in line to vie for his old belts, while he has his sights set on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}