Anthony Joshua’s opportunity of unifying the world heavyweight title next year has gone into mud after he was outclassed by Oleksandr Usyk in front of a packed house at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Oleksander Usyk (19-0) was off to a flying start, landing much heavier and significant strikes to out box Anthony Jsoshua and take his WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO titles becoming only the third boxer in the history to win world titles in two different weight divisions.
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Oleksandr Usyk landed a total of 148 punches compared to AJ’s 123 out of which 28% of them were significant one’s. At the end of 12 rounds the judges scorecard read 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113 for a win for Usyk via Unanimous decision. The 34-year-old Ukranian closed the show by landing 29 punches in the final round which was the most taken by AJ in his fighting history.
With tears in his eyes as his arms were raised in the center of the ring, the newly crowned champion Oleksandr Usyk shook up the heavyweight division.
Instead of an all-English bout for the undisputed title between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, the next development in the Heavyweight division beside Wilder-Fury III will be a rematch between AJ and Usyk, a rematch clause which was invoked by Anthony Joshua.
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Last night, both fighters confirmed that the rematch would take place sometime in March. In one of his post-fight interviews, AJ said, “ I’m ready to get back to training. It was a good 12-rounder, so I’ll be in a good place when I get back into training to pick up where we left off. Usyk is a lot lighter than me so he’s got good pace. But he still gets hit a lot and in the rematch we’ll just learn how to hit him more and be more concussive without punch selection.”
[Image Credit: Usyk Aleksandr]
Shashank Iyer