From a boxing standpoint, Alexander Krassyuk knows Oleksandr Usyk like the back of his hand. As head of K2 Promotions, he guided the long and glorious career of the current heavyweight world champion for twelve years before the two amicably parted ways last year. After watching Usyk’s fight against Verhoeven last Saturday, Krassyuk came to believe that the Ukrainian boxer would be better off retiring before it is too late.
Here is what Krassyuk told Boxing King Media:
“If I were there to advise him, his next opponent would be his family matters, maybe his business issues. That’s what he has to take care of now. He has to stop. It’s better to leave one hour before than two minutes after. Unfortunately, this is the truth. It concerns not just boxing; it concerns every single thing in life.
“This is a very difficult decision for a man like Usyk, being at the top and being unbeaten. But think of the future. So, from the bottom of my heart, I wish him to retire at his prime and be remembered in ages as one of the most prominent and greatest fighters of all time.”
“Usyk did not look fresh. He was at the highest weight [233 pounds] that I ever saw him, but did you see the trend from the previous fight with Dubois and this fight with Rico? The amount of steps he made in the ring significantly declined. He’s not taking the best advantage of his footwork in the ring. But he’s more concentrated on a harder punch, when his feet are loaded into the ground to get more power in the fist.
“Before this fight, people asked me for the prediction. I told them 100 fights out of 100, Usyk wins. But there is also a place for a miracle, the Lord’s will. Thank God this time the miracle did not take place. But the signal has to be detected, and once the signal is detected, the conclusions have to be made. After conclusions are made, the adjustments and improvements have to be done. Otherwise, the tendency, the vector it’s taking, is not a good sign for my brother Oleksandr.”