Oleksandr Usyk has beaten Anthony Joshua to become the new heavyweight champion.
Gatekeepers News reports that Usyk has defeated Joshua with unanimous points of 117-112; 116-112; and 115-113 to become the new heavyweight champion.
It was a shocking night for Joshua and his fans as the Briton-Nigerian was outboxed and outclassed.
AJ, who snatched back his titles from Andy Ruiz Jr two years ago, has now suffered his second world titles’ loss in four fights.
Oleksandr Usyk, having conquered the cruiserweight division, had his rival in trouble at several points in the fight which earned him the heavyweight.
Usyk dethroned Joshua in front of 67,000 fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Joshua has now won 24 and lost two, while Usyk’s record remains perfect – 19 fights, 19 victories.
The fight promoter Eddie Hearn at the end of the match 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.”
The new heavyweight champion in reaction to his victory said: “This means a lot for me. The fight went the way I expected it to go. There were moments when Anthony pushed me hard but it was nothing special.
“I had no objective to knock him out because my corner pushed me not to do that. In the beginning, I tried to hit him hard, but then I stuck to my job.
“The only thing I wanted to do with this fight is to give praise to Jesus Christ.
“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 missed seeing them playing. I want to go home and be happy with my family and I’m not thinking about the rematch.”
On the other hand, Anthony Joshua took to social media to react to his defeat: “Keep positive even if the world’s crumbling in front of you! London I love you & thank you each and every time!” he wrote.
