Before preparing for his fight with Tyson Fury for the title of absolute world heavyweight champion, Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk swiped sparring partners in a special Ready To Fight app.
About said Fortune magazine.
The 37-year-old Ukrainian opened the app before the decisive fight in Riyadh and found sparring partners for his training camp.
«I was a little surprised, because all the guys who spent these weeks in my camp were doing their best in the ring,» Usyk said.
According to him, «exceeded»’s expectations.
Usyk said that he was the first professional boxer to use the app to find sparring partners before a fight.
Ready to Fight is powered by blockchain technology. In addition to a sparring partner, the app helps to find a manager, agent, create a boxing team, and get support.
The app was founded by Oleksandr Usyk and his manager Sergey Lapin. The platform debuted last year and already has about 100,000 users.
Similar to a popular dating app, Ready To Fight allows you to set certain parameters and view potential candidates.
This allowed Usyk to find high profile sparring partners similar to Fury.
«It was the best strategy for my preparation», — Usyk said.
The idea for the app came about after a real-life incident. Usyk was preparing for a fight and had made arrangements with his sparring partners in advance. However, suddenly these arrangements fell through and no one showed up.
This motivated Usyk and Lapin to change some of the principles of the boxing business. The app aims to create a unique platform based on blockchain technology. Alan Duran, the company’s marketing director, emphasizes that their goal is — it’s «hacking the system».
