This article was originally published on May 18.
This weekend marks the biggest boxing match in decades when Oleksandr Usyk faces Tyson Fury to crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 2000.
And in order to prepare for the fight, which takes place on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Usyk did what most people do in this digital age and pulled out his phone. Then the 37-year-old from Ukraine opened an app and found sparring partners to join his training camp.
“I was a little bit surprised because all the guys who spent those weeks in my camp, each one tried his best, tried to leave me with zero chances in the ring,” Usyk said through a translator in an interview. “They exceeded my expectations.”
Usyk said he was the first professional boxer to use an online application to find sparring partners for an upcoming fight. That might sound like he was taking a risk, but Usyk is the co-founder of the app, Ready To Fight. The platform debuted last year and has about 100,000 users, including boxers and trainers.
Just like a dating application, this one connects users with potential matches using filters for specific characteristics. That allowed Usyk to find tall sparring partners that were similar to Fury, who stands 6-foot-9.
“That was the best strategy for my preparation,” said Usyk, who is 6-foot-3.
The idea for the app came from a real life situation. Usyk was preparing for a fight when the contracts for his sparring partners fell through and none of them showed up to his camp.
Having been burned, Usyk and his co-founder, Sergey Lapin, saw an opportunity to change how the boxing business works. The app aims to create a more efficient platform, including through the use of blockchain technology, to connect different parts of the industry.
The goal is “breaking the system,” said Alan Duran, the company’s chief marketing officer.
