Usyk vs Dubois 2: How brain training created a heavyweight monster in Oleksandr Usyk

The reward for a second win over Briton Dubois is a place in a very elite club as a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion.

Only George Foreman, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and Muhammad Ali have achieved that feat, but Usyk will be the first to do it in the four-belt era if he is successful.

Usyk is no stranger to facing an opponent for a second time – he has twice beaten Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua – but his preparations never centre around the opponent.

Instead, Usyk is put under immense physical fatigue before being tasked with mental tests to strengthen his ability to think on the spot when he’s in the ring.

During tough physical workouts, Usyk is asked to solve a Schulte table, which is a grid filled with numbers or letters that need to be ordered into a specific sequence.

Another task is juggling balls with the purpose of keeping his mind focused as he recovers from a period of cardio training.

“We know everything about Usyk’s physiology and how his body works under different stresses,” Chycki added.

“We know how we should read his signals and symptoms. We didn’t change anything.

“We have a round table every Saturday and look at what we’ve done and what needs to change. We don’t change to the opponents’ strategy.”

One of the major health risks concerned with boxing is chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) – a brain condition linked to repeated blows to the head and concussion. CTE leads to dementia and can only be diagnosed post-mortem.

Chycki suggested one of the reasons they monitor Usyk and do cognitive training is to help with the “prevention of brain injury”.

But Dr Thom Wilcockson, a senior lecturer of psychology at Loughborough University, says the scientific evidence is not strong enough to suggest cognitive training prevents CTE.

“It would add a robustness against fatigue induced cognitive decline but not necessarily the long-term effects that CTE could cause,” he said.

“It would give Usyk a larger cognitive reserve which might help mitigate other types of dementia like Alzheimer’s disease.”