Oleksandr Usyk suggested his wife was responsible for his victory over Tyson Fury in a subtle dig at the Brit – after the Gypsy King ignored his beloved Paris for three months.
Fury locked himself in an intensive camp and claimed he had not spoken to his wife Paris, whom he married in 2008 and has seven children.
The pair were finally reunited at the pre-fight press conference on Thursday evening, but their coalition failed to inspire Fury to victory in Riyadh on Saturday.
Usyk won 116–112 on all three judges’ scorecards to retain his WBA, WBC and WBO heavyweight belts, winning 16 of the final 18 available rounds in the second half of the fight.
When asked what the key to that endurance was, he said: ‘I don’t know, maybe I train. Good preparation. My wife helps me (smiles).
Leading up to the fight, Usyk revealed that he had not actually seen his wife Yekaterina (Katerina) in five months, but said they spoke every day.
Oleksandr Usyk credited his wife Katerina for helping her beat Tyson Fury on Saturday night
It may have been a subtle swipe at Fury, who said he hadn’t even spoken to his wife Paris in three months as he prepared for the fight.
Usyk defeated the Gypsy King 116-112 on all three judges’ scorecards to retain his belts
He and Katerina have been married for 15 years and have four children: sons Kyrylo and Mykhalio and daughters Yelizaveta and Maria, whose birth he missed while preparing for the first match between himself and Fury.
“It helped me because it is my family,” the Ukrainian said.
‘My little daughter, Maria, started walking, say ‘mama’, ‘baba’ [grandmother]. This is a real motivation for me.’
Elite athletes often face time away from their loved ones, but it’s a particularly felt theme in boxing, where fighters retreat for extended periods of time and demand an unyielding focus from themselves.
Fury revealed in October that his wife Paris suffered a miscarriage on the eve of his first fight with Usyk in May, but was only told when he got home.
‘She was six months pregnant. It’s not like a minor miscarriage at first: you have to physically deliver a dead child on your own, while your husband is abroad.
“It’s not good to have to go through that alone.”
Paris usually attends the Gypsky King fights, but he knew something was wrong when she wasn’t ringside for that first fight in Riyadh, which he lost via split decision.
Fury claimed afterwards that he had won both of his fights against the Ukrainian this year
In October, he revealed that Paris had suffered a miscarriage with their eighth child on the eve of his first fight against Usyk in May.
Usyk has four children with his wife Yekaterina, with whom he spoke ‘every day’ in the run-up to the war
He said: ‘I said to my brother, ‘She lost that baby.’ She never told me she had lost the baby, but I knew.
‘When I came back I got the inevitable confirmation that it was gone, but she had kept it to herself.’
Fury added: “I couldn’t be there for her at that moment. And that’s difficult for me.
“I’ve been with the woman longer than I’ve been away from her, so it’s hard that I couldn’t be with her during that time.”
Fury went the distance with Usyk again on Saturday night and was praised by pundits for raising his game, although the scorecards gave him a distant defeat.
Fury stormed out of the ring after learning the result and later told Sky Sports he felt he had won by three rounds, with co-promoter Frank Warren calling defeat by that margin ‘impossible’.
At the press conference, Fury was asked what’s next for him after falling short in undisputed and then unified title fights, marking the first losses of his entire professional career.
‘I thought I won that fight. I thought I won both fights, but I’m going home with two losses under my belt. There’s not much I can do about it. I can just fight my heart out,” he said.
“I will believe until the day I die that I won that fight. I was aggressive, standing on the front foot all night and landing on the body and head. Frank Warren [his promoter] I had three or four rounds ahead of me. Many people had at least two rounds ahead of me. But I’m not going to cry over spilled milk. I can’t change the decision. If you don’t get the KO, this is what happens: you can’t guarantee a win
“Maybe you’ll see me fight again, maybe not,” he replied cryptically. Many fans will be hoping his future involves a highly anticipated meeting with Anthony Joshua.