Oleksandr Usyk explains part his wife played in Daniel Dubois fight

Oleksandr Usyk accepted defeat in his attempt to take a break from when he found himself begging his WIFE to punch him.

Usyk planned to take an extended hiatus from the ring after defeating for a second time last . Two gruelling victories over the Brit had taken their toll on the former two-weight undisputed champion. But the Ukrainian was champing at the bit within a fortnight - and he knew his holiday was over when he asked his wife Yekaterina to trade blows.

"After I fought Fury I only took two weeks off," said Usyk. "I went back to Spain with my team and I was running and riding and swimming but it's not good enough. I was training hard. I was doing fitness training, it was regular but hard training. I was shadow boxing too, but I called my wife and told her, 'Hey, I think I might want to go back to the boxing gym’ and she said: 'I know'.

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"Then I was back home training every day; Sunday was my only day off to pray at church, and after two weeks I could not rest, it was impossible. I was upstairs in my house and every time I walked past the mirror I was in my boxing stance and shadow boxing; bang, bang bang, and move position.

"Sometimes my wife would walk by and I would tell her: 'Punch me, punch me!'. But she would just kiss me to keep me quiet and stop." Usyk will attempt to become the undisputed heavyweight world champion for a second time when he takes on at Wembley on July 19.

The rivals met two years ago in Poland when Dubois dropped Usyk only for the referee to rule his punch a low blow. Usyk recovered and went on to stop Dubois in the ninth round before beating Fury to become the first man to hold all four belts in boxing's premier division.

He now plans to retire after two final fights - but knows he will have to stay in the gym in order to keep out of the way of his wife. "Even when my career ends, I will always stay in boxing and train. I need to keep my organs fit and strong," he added. "For 23 years now I have been working on boxing alone, no more football or judo or anything.

"I don't drink or smoke or go clubbing, so if I didn't go training I would probably just break things in the house and annoy my wife even more. For example; Ronaldo was a great player - not Cristiano, the old Brazil one - but when he retired he got so big. He was so fast and good at dribbling and skinny but when he stopped football and sport he became a very big man. He stopped training and he lost his conditioning. I don’t want that, I want to live long and build up Ukrainian boxing schools and teams."