Oleksandr Usyk joins the greats with historic undisputed victory over Tyson Fury

Oleksandr Usyk didn’t just win the undisputed heavyweight title in Riyadh on Saturday night – he effectively completed boxing.

Usyk’s victory over Tyson Fury, the crowning achievement in a career littered with them, sees him transcend the here and now and take his place as one of the greatest and most decorated fighters of all time.

The 37-year-old Ukrainian has won every title available to him, and it merits listing them.

As an amateur he was national, European, world and Olympic champion. As an unbeaten professional he has now added the fully unified and undisputed heavyweight title to his fully unified and undisputed cruiserweight championship – all within just 22 bouts. There is simply nothing left for him to win.

That resume is already the stuff of legend, but it’s when you start to add context to those accomplishments that the scale of Usyk’s greatness is revealed.

He has spoken of how he feels a deep sense of responsibility to provide victories to lift the morale of the Ukrainian armed forces defending their country in the face of Russian aggression; to provide inspiration for the Ukrainian people, who live with the terrifying daily reality of rocket and drone attacks. It’s a pressure that’s hard to fathom.

His compatriot, the former champion Wladimir Klitschko, said Usyk made him proud to be Ukrainian, that Saturday’s triumph allowed Ukrainians to feel normal again for a short time.

It was the latest in a spectacular run of victories made even more remarkable by the fact that they’ve all been achieved on the road.

Russia’s invasion has prevented Usyk from returning to fight on home turf. The closest he has come to a homecoming bout was last August’s ninth-round stoppage of Daniel Dubois in Wroclaw, where