Former WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua 24-2 (22) has taken his second professional loss on the chin after being upset by underdog Oleksandr Usyk 19-0 (13) at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in Tottenham, England on Saturday night.
Ukrainian southpaw Usyk, 34, was able to outbox Joshua for much of the fight with the 31-year-old reigning champion struggling to maintain any meaningful offence against the slick and agile former undisputed cruiserweight champion.
At the end of 12 rounds it was a clear and comprehensive victory for Usyk, who won by unanimous decision with scores of 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113.
There is a rematch clause in the contract that Joshua is planning to enact.
“Well done to the winner,” Joshua said. “We’ll be back again. Get back into training. Great twelve rounds, great experience in the ring, and then we progress from this point on once again so we’ll be doing it all again soon.”
Late in the fight Usyk suffered a cut offer his right eye while Joshua had swelling under his own right eye that he says impaired his vision.
“I couldn’t see in the ninth round,” Joshua said. “I couldn’t see anything really. But it was a good experience because in adversity you just gotta learn to control yourself. Stay on top of things.
“When I couldn’t see anything, it’s the first time it’s happened in a fight. I was thinking ‘all right, cool… this is the first time my eye’s closed up in a fight. I can’t see anything and I’m looking out of one eye.’ But it got better as the rounds went on.
“We’ll be back 100 (percent). I’m ready to get back to training. Because of the twelve rounds, my lungs and everything, it was a good twelve-rounder so I’ll be in a good place when I get back into training to pick up where we left off.
“He’s got good pace but he still gets hit, you know? He gets hit a lot and in the rematch, we’ll just learn how to hit him more and be more concussive with our punch selection.
“I never tend to look at the opponent. I just tend to look at myself and realize where I went wrong. So it’s not so much what he did, it’s the opportunities I gave him. So it’s not so much him, I’m just going to go back and look at myself and correct my wrongs.
“The road to undisputed and all that stuff is good. As I said, I’ll fight Tyson Fury, [Deontay] Wilder, whatnot, without the belts. The belts are fun, it’s great, it’s legacy, but with or without the belts I’ll fight whoever. The road to undisputed is a nice title to chase, but would you still watch it without the belts?”
