Oleksandr Usyk looks to be reaching the end of his tether as he's pulled from pillar to post to complete various media duties at London Wembley's Hilton hotel early on Daniel Dubois fight week.

Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs), for the fourth time in his career, is in England to face one of Britain's premier fighters, except this time it is with the goal of becoming a three-time undisputed champion in mind.

The Ukrainian strolls over to a cluster of reporters waiting to wring every last word out of him once the beam from a large LED light is switched off from in front of his face, signalling the end of a previous interview.

While Usyk may be at his wits end with it all, he knows that it's part and parcel by now, and moments later, his frown is turned upside down when the topic of his family, who he has spent yet more time away from, is broached.

"I’m always calling my wife early in the morning," he says. "When our young daughter wakes up, she always wants to see her daddy. It’s always in the morning and evening, sometimes even at lunch when there’s a break and I have time.”

“[My sons] were [in training camp in Valencia] with me and then they left. They were there for one week then one of them went to Spain to train for the Judo Spanish championships. One stayed with me and then they came back again for two days before leaving again.

“It’s always been very difficult, but I always keep in mind that I have to be focused on training and I chose this path to be who I am now. Sometimes we have to give away things to get even better things. And sometimes it’s the people that are around us that are closest to us, they pay the price for us."

The time away is painful but Usyk knows why he does it.

“When I was very little my family was quite poor," he adds. "Sometimes there would be no money to even buy some bread. Now I’m working so hard so my kids will have not just bread but butter."

His children, two sons, Kyrylo and Mykhalio and two daughters, Yelizaveta and Maria, are his biggest source of pride. But he acknowledges that if they want to achieve like he has, a lifetime of graft is required. And once the mountain top is reached, it's still not the be-all and end-all.

"My older son wants to be the Olympic champion in judo and my younger son wants to be the Olympic champion in boxing," he says with a smile. "I always said, to get there, you have to be working a lot and sometimes, being famous is not that fun."

Though Usyk speaks of hard work and dedication, belief is also an important part of reaching the levels of success he has. When he was a child he says that his friends didn't believe like he did, for it simply just wasn't in their nature to think of the unthinkable.

Usyk was the outlier.

"The place I come from, people don’t even believe that they can move from their city to another city," he says.

"I would not be writing ‘I will be champion,' but, ‘I am the world champion'. When someone would say, ‘Oleksandr Usyk wants to become world champion,' I would say, ‘No, I am the world champion'. Out of 10 boys in the same area, I was the only one who used to say that I would become a world champion; they would do nothing, and they wouldn’t believe it. Sergey Lapin, one of us here, was the only one who said, ‘I think you actually will'.

“When I started boxing all I wanted to do was punch someone in my backyard. I thought that if we have seven billion people on the planet and I can become world champion, it’s very good."

Not only did Usyk become a world champion, he picked up every single belt at cruiserweight before doing the same at heavyweight, cementing his legacy as a generational great in just 23 fights. It's been quite the run but he admits this remarkable chapter of his life is coming to an end.

"Two more fights," he nods. "This and the next. Right now my only focus is Daniel."

Dubois is riding a tsunami of confidence after a three-fight run of knockout victories, the last of which came against Anthony Joshua in devastating, scintillating style at Wembley Stadium 10 months ago.

"Chaos," Dubois has promised.

"It's God's will," comes the reply from Usyk.

The pair have already fought. Just under two years ago in Wroclaw, Poland, Usyk stopped Dubois with a jab in the ninth round of their world title contest and, other than Dubois' renaissance, the selling point for the rematch is to do with what happened in the fifth round of their August 2023 duel.

Body shot, low blow — you decide. Ultimately, this chapter of Usyk's career will have its finality on Saturday night. He concedes that Dubois, who he gave words of advice to ring after beating him, is a different man to the one he fought on that night in front of 43,000 fans.

"Before the fight," Usyk says, "I told him that if he loses, he would quit boxing. When the fight was over, I told him not to make a mistake, not to quit, just keep working.

"I think that Daniel has changed, because he's grown up a bit, and now he has a champion's belt. But I'm also not standing still. I haven't been staying in one place either, I've been growing, too."

So, with the penultimate stage of Usyk's career upon us, focus switches to what the Olympic champion may do once he hangs his gloves up. Usyk has been heavyweight champion for four years now and it seems unimaginable that he will be beaten into retirement.

"I will train younger boxers and give them the experience I have gained," the 38-year-old says.

And what of Usyk's life without boxing from the very beginning?

“There’s three options – there’s movies, music or prison.”

Win or lose on Saturday, becoming an inspiration to Ukraine's next crop of pugilistic wonders is right at the top of his post-boxing agenda.

“When I meet younger boxers, I say, ‘No matter what age you are, you can do whatever you want to do – everything is achievable',” asserts The Ring's No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter.

“You have to work. The worst thing that you can think of is to do something tomorrow. You have to do it right now. If you want to do something, write it on a piece of paper and always carry it with you – don’t forget that you wanted to do it, and do it right now.”