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Usyk’s Stunning Victory Turns the Heavyweight Division On Its Head
For Anthony Joshua, the plan was simple. Beat Oleksandr Usyk and set up the the most lucrative payday of his career against either Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder, who are set to fight for the third time October 9th in Las Vegas.
Usyk, however, had other ideas.
The Ukrainian put together a brilliant display of pugilistic skill and defeated Joshua via unanimous decision Saturday in front of 70,000 hostile spectators inside London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) repeatedly pushed Joshua, and there were a couple of times when he actually staggered the Brit. The judges at ringside scored the bout 117-112, 116-112, and 115-113.
“This means much for me, a lot,” Usyk said. “The fight went exactly the way I expected it to go. There were a couple of moments when Anthony pushed me hard but nothing special.”
According to Compubox, the former undisputed cruiserweight champion landed 148 punches throughout the fight, the most ever by a Joshua opponent. To illustrate just how much Usyk pushed the action, he closed the fight by landing 29 punches in round 12, also the most by a Joshua opponent.
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Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs), for his part, viewed the result, and the fight as a whole, as a learning experience.
“When I was walking back through the tunnel, I just said to myself, I’m ready to get back to the gym, I’m ready to just put that work in,” he said during the post fight press conference.
“I just want to get back to the gym, get back on the grind and improve, so when I fight these good guys and see that they are hurt I can capitalize on the opportunity.”
Joshua definitely had moments throughout the contest, but Usyk applied most of the pressure, especially in the last quarter of the fight. He landed constant combinations, and hit Joshua with a left at the end of round 12 that definitely took the Brit’s legs out from under him. Had Usyk landed that punch 30 seconds earlier, he probably would have dropped Joshua.
Usyk is making a habit of achieving signature moneys in the English capital. He also won Olympic gold at the 2012 London games.
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“London is a really lucky city for me but not a single professional victory can be above an Olympic gold,” he said after the fight.
The now former champion has a rematch clause in his contract that he is almost surely going to exercise, quelling talks (at least for now) of a Usyk unification bout with the winner of the Wilder/Fury fight. In fact, he is already looking at adjustments he can make to emerge victorious next time.
“I’m going back to look at ways that I can improve. Straight away, I’ve already been watching the fight and thinking ‘I could’ve done that better,” he said. “I’m not going to be going home and be crying about it, because this is war. It’s a long process. This isn’t just one fight and then I’m done.”
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