Nigerian-born British fighter, Anthony Joshua on Saturday lost his titles in a clash with Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk at Tottenham, United kingdom.
The Ukrainian, who has never been defeated in his career, has now taken Joshua’s IBF, WBO and WBA heavyweight titles.
The win came via a clean sweep of the judges’ scorecards, 117-112, 116-112, 115-113 in the favour of Usyk.
Usyk started the contest superbly, working intelligent angles to catch Joshua upstairs and to the body as the champion struggled to deal with his opponent’s
Joshua had hoped to become the undisputed heavyweight world champion by beating Tyson Fury in a heavily-anticipated bout and adding the WBC title to his collection of belts.
Speaking after the fight, Usyk said: “The fight went the way I expected it to go.
“There were a couple of moments where Anthony Joshua pushed me hard, but just nothing special. I had no objective to knock him out because my trainers pushed me not to do that.
“At the beginning I hit him hard and tried to knock him out but my trainers said to stop and just do my job.
“The only thing I wanted to do with this fight was to praise my Lord, Jesus Christ and say all comes from him. Today, 12 years ago, my wife said to me yes, today I am double happy.
“I have been working so hard since January in preparation for this fight, it took me half a year and I didn’t see my family for so long. I miss my family, I want to go home and I am not thinking about the rematch at the moment.
“You didn’t see the best Usyk, I can be much better.”
This is the second defeat of Joshua’s professional career after his loss to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019.
Donate to Precision
