Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk has defeated Nigerian-born British heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua.
Usyk won by a unanimous decision by judges, besting Joshua in most parts of the ten-round fight at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, London, Saturday night.
The three judges scored the fight 117-112, 116-112, 115-113 in Usyk’s favour.
With the win, Anthony Joshua has lost his WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles.
Usyk consequently has become the unified heavyweight boxing champion of the world.
In a chat with The Guradian of London, the fight promoter Eddie Hearn said: “I spoke to him [Joshua] … obviously it was a tough fight, a gruelling fight … a devastating defeat. Congrats to Usyk, what a fighter, the better man won … The danger was always that you overthink it and try to be too technical and don’t use your attributes … it was all the things you worry about against a fighter like Usyk. No complaints from AJ, he’ll get up, and he’ll go again. This was just being beat by a better man on the night.
“He’s got to make changes in the rematch, because if that happens again, of course, he’ll get beat … that for me was an average performance from Anthony Joshua. He can do so much better in that fight … but he’s facing the best consistently. You can’t have it both ways … fighters should take on the very best … it was a high-level fight … there’s no point sulking about it … you say: ‘I’ll go back to the drawing board and I’ll go again.’”
More details later..