landing cleanly with a body shot and straight punches. But it was short-lived as the Ukrainian came out sharp in the seventh. The fight was switching pattern and Joshua was now in the ascendancy. A huge right in the sixth stopped Usyk dead in his tracks, the clever southpaw using the ring to stay out off range for much of the round. Finally, a powerful round for the now predatory champion. Then a right to the body from the champion, and three more for good measure. Then a right hook from Joshua in the fifth told. Brilliant first third of the fight by Usyk from the southpaw stance. Usyk bossed the movement in the fourth, but always pressing, always lurking, and clearly looking to detonate, the champion. Two powerful jabs from the Ukrainian and then a left hook made its mark on the champion. Usyk was moving faster in the third, showing his ring smarts. Usyk went from right to left, left to right in the second, swaying with his footwork, as Joshua, using his jab as his shield, tried to dominate the space between them.
Joshua was immediately into Usyk’s space, pressing the challenger, probing him, going to head and body as Usyk twice landed his left hands, showing how dangerous a fighter he is, but throwing them without full force. Referee Michael Alexander gave them their final words and the dance began.
Four times victorious, but not on this fifth occasion. It was the fifth time he has made this ring walk out in front of a huge house, his comfort zone in the UK. The screens showed Joshua’s brutal uppercut knockout of Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium in April, 2017, and then out came “AJ”, to the strains of Afrobeat, looking loose and relaxed. Once in the ring, “The Cat” looked tense.
Usyk walked out to a pop/folk song, the visor of his cap over his face. Ring legends present included Roy Jones Jr and Vitali Klitschko. The atmosphere in the stadium was electric. They call him “The Cat” and he displayed all those qualities. The plain truth is that Joshua, stylistically, was not a match for Usyk, slick, southpaw and supreme. The defending champion had to make his size, power and weight advantages tell from the off, to pressure Usyk and establish a rhythm yet was unable to land with brute force on the ever-moving, ever-darting, bald-headed figure before him.įleet of foot, out of range and then in range, Usyk was a ghost of a target, skills which will claim the former undefeated cruiserweight king a place in the pantheon of greats.īoth men, Olympic gold medalists from London 2012 - Joshua at super-heavyweight, Usyk at heavyweight - gave their all here. Joshua carried the weight and power advantages – 19 pounds heavier than his Ukrainian foe at 17st 2lbs – but was unable to make that difference tell in a dance that Usyk led – a grade above with his vast boxing skills. Sure enough – and it told round after round – the challenger presented, in pure boxing terms, the greatest challenge so far in the Londoner’s career.
At the beginning I hit him hard and tried to knock him out but my trainers said to stop and just do my job." "I had no objective to knock him out because my trainers pushed me not to do that. There were a couple of moments when Anthony pushed me hard, but nothing special. Usyk explained: "The fight went exactly the way I expected it to go. Usyk follows in the footsteps of Evander Holyfield and David Haye, winning heavyweight world titles after being cruiserweight champions. It was all the things we worried about in the fight before, the over-thinking, trying to stand and box with him, and he took too many shots early." "I don't think AJ boxed a great fight tonight, Usyk boxed an excellent fight. "It was a devastating defeat, but congrats to Oleksandr Usyk, the better fighter won. "I spoke to AJ, and he is saying 'I will win the rematch', but the medical teams are looking at the eye socket," said Hearn. The three judges – from the UK, Ukraine and the USA – scored the contest 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113 all in favour of Usyk, the 34-year-old born in Crimea.ĭefeat was described as "devastating" by Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn who said his boxer had complained of a lack of vision in one eye after a blow in the ninth round, but added that the Briton was also expressing his immediate desire for a rematch. Usyk wobbled Joshua in the seventh round, and even had the home fighter on the ropes in the last 30 seconds of the 12th round, exhausted and in survival mode. he was a negative fighter': how Anthony Joshua was defeated and how the world reactedĪnthony Joshua's £200 million blockbuster fight with Tyson Fury was wrecked by Oleksandr Usyk as the unbeaten Ukrainian put on a scintillating display of boxing to claim the IBF, WBA, WBO and IBO belts.