Boxing: Dominant Usyk ends Joshua’s second reign as heavyweight champ

Slumped helplessly on the ropes, Anthony Joshua greeted the ultimate bell _ and what he knew was the top of his second reign as world heavyweight champion _ with a wry smile.
Oleksandr Usyk knew it, too, dropping to his knees and trying to the sky.
In simply his third struggle since stepping up from the cruiserweight division, Usyk delivered a clinic in motion and quick punching to assert a unanimous factors win over Joshua in entrance of 66,267 surprised followers inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Saturday.
Usyk grew to become the third man, after Evander Holyfield and David Haye, to win world titles at cruiserweight then heavyweight. Six years after Wladimir Klitschko’s lengthy heavyweight reign ended, Ukraine has one other champion in boxing’s marquee division.
“The fight went exactly as I expected it to go,” Usyk stated by a translator. “There were a couple of moments when Anthony pushed me hard but nothing special.”
Oleksandr Usyk celebrates successful his struggle in opposition to Anthony Joshua (Source: Reuters)
After the judges scored the struggle 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113 in favor of the 34-year-old Usyk, Joshua _ sporting a closed proper eye _ walked over to Usyk’s nook and congratulated the Ukrainian’s staff.
Dominated by a smaller, lighter and far quicker opponent, Joshua misplaced his WBA, WBO and IBF titles for a second time _ greater than two years after a defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr. in New York that he instantly avenged in Saudi Arabia.
Joshua can have the prospect to do the identical factor _ there’s a rematch clause within the take care of Usyk _ in a bid to maintain alive his final aim: To turn into undisputed champion. The British public, who’ve adopted Joshua’s journey from Olympic champion by to world champion, hoped for an all-British struggle in opposition to WBC champion Tyson Fury to unify the 4 belts.
That appears to be like fanciful now, although. Usyk was comfortably the extra assured fighter, his reflexes drawing gasps from the pro-Joshua crowd and his lightning-quick punch off his left hand repeatedly connecting.
Joshua simply didn’t see the punches coming, like within the third spherical when his head was rocked again by a straight left earlier than the Briton wobbled after a left hook flush on the jaw.
Like within the ninth, when one other left from Usyk caught Joshua, who nodded to the challenger because the bell went.
And particularly in a sensational remaining spherical when the disparity between the fighters was at its greatest as Usyk unleashed a flurry of punches _ from his left and proper _ that noticed Joshua staggering backward onto the ropes. Indeed, he was saved by the bell.
Joshua couldn’t see out of his proper eye from the ninth spherical.
“I had no objective to knock him out because my corner pushed me not to do that,” Usyk stated. “At the start, I hit him and tried to knock him out but my trainer said, `Just stop and do your job.’”
Usyk stepped as much as heavyweight in 2019 after unifying all of the cruiserweight belts, and now has 19 straight wins as an expert.
Oleksandr Usyk celebrates successful his struggle in opposition to Anthony Joshua (Source: Reuters)
His vitality ranges had been exceptional, as proven within the remaining spherical after which after the consequence was introduced as Usyk _ an eccentric _ entertained the gang with an acrobatic dance contained in the ring.
Joshua fell to the second lack of his 25-fight professional profession, this time to a person who adopted him _ only a day later _ as Olympic champion on the London Games in 2012. His profession is at a crossroads once more.
“I’m not going to be going home tonight, crying about it,” Joshua stated. “Because this is war. I can’t sulk. That is wasting time.”
And there shall be a rematch.
“Oh, 100% … 110%,” Joshua stated.
Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, stated it’ll seemingly happen in February or March, and ideally in Britain.