Ukraine’s Boxing Champion Usyk Released After Brief Poland Detention

Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy said he was ‘outraged’ over the detention of his country’s ‘champion’ in Poland.

Undisputed heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk has been released after a brief detention by law enforcement officers at Poland’s Krakow airport, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed.

It was not immediately clear why Usyk was detained. The WBC, WBO and WBA champion, who also won gold at the 2012 London Olympics, is looked upon as a national hero and has aided Kyiv’s war efforts.

“I was outraged by this attitude towards our citizen and champion,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app late on Tuesday.

“Our champion was released and no one is detaining him anymore.”

I spoke with Oleksandr Usyk on the phone after he was detained.

I was disappointed by this attitude towards our citizen and champion.

I instructed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andrii Sybiha, and the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko, to… pic.twitter.com/LNKcH0OupR

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 17, 2024

Usyk, who is expected to attend Saturday’s heavyweight boxing fight between Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua in London, later said the detention was a result of a misunderstanding.

“Friends, everything is fine,” Usyk said in an Instagram post. “There was a misunderstanding that was quickly resolved. Thank you to everyone who was concerned.”

He added, “Respect to the Polish law enforcement officers who perform their duties regardless of height, weight, arm span, and titles.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X that his ministry will contact the Polish foreign ministry, as it considered the detention “disproportionate and unacceptable in relation to our champion”.

Polish TVP Info, a television news channel run by state broadcaster TVP, published a social media video on its website showing Polish law enforcement officers walking the handcuffed Usyk through what appeared to be an airport.

Usyk beat Tyson Fury in May to become undisputed heavyweight boxing world champion in a thrilling contest at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.

The 37-year-old Ukrainian is the first boxer to hold all four major heavyweight belts at the same time and the first undisputed champ since the end of Lennox Lewis’s reign in April 2000.

Usyk’s charity fund, the Usyk Foundation, aids Kyiv’s forces in the war that Russia launched against Ukraine in 2022. It buys, among other things, ambulances and delivers humanitarian aid to the front line.

Usyk’s wife, Yekaterina Usyk, who posted a blurred photo of her husband surrounded by uniformed officers, said in an Instagram post in English that she was thankful her husband was free after a misunderstanding.