Oleksandr Usik after his victory over Fury topped the P4P rating according to the authoritative magazine The Ring. This means that the Ukrainian boxer is now the best in the world regardless of the category. Find out who other Ukrainians have been honoured with such recognition before

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Last weekend, Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk won all the super-heavyweight belts and became the undisputed champion in this category. Subsequently, The Ring and ESPN magazines recognised the Ukrainian as the best fighter in the world regardless of weight (P4P). But was Usyk the only Ukrainian boxer to achieve this? Answer.

The fact is that Oleksandr's case is unique, as he first became the absolute heavyweight champion and then moved up to the super-heavyweight division. But even there, he had no equal. Also, during his professional career, Usyk has never tasted defeat.

In his last fight, when all the belts were at stake, Usyk outboxed the undefeated British boxer Tyson Fury. And this was despite the fact that almost all bookmakers gave the victory to the "Gypsy King".

Previously, the number one in the P4P rankings was the Japanese boxer, the absolute champion in the second lightest weight Naoya Inoue. But the Ukrainian's achievement forced The Ring to update the ranking, and now it looks like this:

1. Oleksandr Usyk (Ukraine);

2. Naoya Inoue (Japan);

3. Terence Crawford (USA);

4. Saul Alvarez (Mexico);

5. Artur Beterbiev;

6. Dmytro Bivol;

7. Errol Spence (USA);

8. Jervonta Davis (USA);

9. Jesse Rodriguez (USA);

10. Zunto Nakatani (Japan).

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Usyk is not the first Ukrainian to top the P4P rankings

To begin with, it should be explained that ratings compiled by independent publications are the most recognised in boxing. For example, there is a P4P rating from ESPN or BoxRec. But perhaps the most significant of all is the list of the best according to The Ring magazine.

Based on this, boxers can only dream of being recognised by at least one of these publications. Fortunately, there have been several such boxers in the independent history of Ukraine.

Wladimir Klitschko

In 2015, the legendary Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko topped the P4P rankings according to BoxRec after American Floyd Mayweather announced the end of his sports career.

At that time, the Ukrainian super-heavyweight had held the world title for almost 10 years and won his last 22 fights, 15 of which ended early.

Vasyl Lomachenko

At the end of 2017, ESPN published an updated ranking of the world's best boxers regardless of weight category (P4P). At that time, after a stunning series of victories, Ukrainian lightweight Vasyl Lomachenko rose to the top. A year later, he topped the P4P rankings according to Sports Illustrated.

At that time, Vasyl had fought 10 fights, 8 of which ended early. Lomachenko lost one fight to the fierce Mexican Orlando Salido by split decision back in 2014. But it was only the Ukrainian's second professional fight.

Returning to Usyk, it is worth noting that the Ukrainian heavyweight topped the ratings of two reputable publications at once. But this is not surprising, as Oleksandr is the first in the 21st century to collect all the belts in this category. Moreover, the Ukrainian is the first to win all of them in the era of four belts, because until 2004, it was enough to win only three titles - WBA, WBC and IBF - to become an absolute world champion. However, in 2004, the WBA recognised the WBO as an equal organisation.

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