Oleksandr Usyk may hold a perfect record in the pro ranks, with wins over Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, but he was stopped years ago by one man.
Oleksandr Usyk is now 23-0 as a professional, with wins over some of Britain’s most elite fighters, including Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Daniel Dubois, and Tony Bellew.
Usyk is set to rematch Dubois this summer and hopes to extend his unbeaten record. However, despite being unbeaten as a pro, Usyk has been defeated before, but has only ever been stopped once.
Oleksandr Usyk was stopped by Matvey Korobov in Bulgaria
In July 2006, Usyk, who once threatened Wladimir Klitschko, headed to Plovdiv, Bulgaria for the EABA European Championships.
After winning by stoppage in the first round of preliminaries, Usyk faced Badou Jack, who punched a ref once, in the second round, stopping him too.
He then won the quarter-final round, but came unstuck in the semi-finals, when he faced Matvey Korobov.
Korobov, a Russian fighter with an amateur record of 42-2, became the only man to stop Usyk, who beat Michael Hunter, that day.
Korobov has 15 knockouts to his name, and has stopped Badou Jack and Daniel Jacobs, and beat Sergey Kovalev.
One of his two losses came at the hands of Gennadiy Golovkin.
Matvey Korobov was beaten as a pro by one British star
As a professional, Korobov has a record of 28-4-1, though retired in 2020. Three of his four losses, and his one draw, came in his last four fights.
Prior to that, he had lost only to Joseph Parker‘s coach Andy Lee, who stopped him in the sixth round.
He faced Jermall Charlo in 2018, who beat him by unanimous decision, before drawing with Immanuwel Aleem.
In his penultimate fight, he was knocked out in just two rounds by Chris Eubank Jr., before being retired for good by Ronald Ellis, who lost to David Benavidez in his next fight.