"He was very easy to move and had good technique, but I was better", Lukasz Wawrzyczek remembered this rare moment in sports.
The Polish boxer who lives in the English Channel between England and France, did something that boxers like Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have not been able to do. He defeated Oleksandr Usyk.
The rare defeat for the then 18-year-old Ukrainian, who last week became the undisputed heavyweight champion of professional boxing with a unanimous decision victory over Tyson Fury, came in the amateur bout in Poland.
Both boxers represented their countries in November 2005.
"I was invited to represent Poland, but the selector of the Polish national team told me, 'I'm sorry Lukasz, but they don't have any boxers of your category,'" Wawrzyczek recalls.
"At that time I was in the welterweight category. The Ukrainian team then said that 'we have a young guy, 18 years old, in the middleweight category, do you want to face him?', the Polish boxer went on to say that he was Oleksandr Usyk.
also
Usyk, also a professional in football
"He was European junior champion. He was much bigger than me, but I accepted the fight.
The match was very strong, and the score was tied after two rounds.
"The coach told me that the fight is currently even and if I lose the third round, I lose the fight. So I attacked in the whole third round and I won the round and the whole fight", declared the Polish boxer.
