September 26, (THEWILL) – Former heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua, who was dethroned over 12 rounds by Oleksandr Usyk in Saturday night’s fight, wants an immediate rematch. The British pugilist, who remained upbeat despite the surprise defeat, was frank about his take on the loss and ready to get his titles back.
In a fight determined by a unanimous points decision, Joshua was stripped of his IBF, WBA and WBO titles by Usyk, in what was Usyk’s third fight since stepping up to heavyweight from the cruiserweight category, where he reigned as the unified and undisputed division champion.
THEWILL recalls that Joshua had previously lost by knockout to Andy Ruiz Jr. in June 2019 before reclaiming the belts in their rematch by unanimous decision.
It is that comeback that is once again inspiring Joshua against Usyk after he did not rise to the occasion in front of more than 66,000 fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday. He made this clear in his first post-match news conference when he said: “I’m ready to get back to training”
“A 100 per cent, a 110 per cent. I’m ready to get back to training. Because I did 12 rounds, my lungs, and everything… I’ll be in a good place even I get back to training and pick up where we left off.”
As THEWILL reported, Joshua was looking forward to taking on WBC holder Tyson Fury in a lucrative showdown to decide an undisputed champion in the heavyweight division only for that fight to be shelved when Fury was ordered to face Deontay Wilder for a third time instead, according to the dictates of their contract.
Usyk, who had initially set his mandatory challenge aside for the Joshua/Fury bout to hold, stepped up to bridge the gap. But, the mandatory challenger was aiming for much more with his switch to the heavyweight class.
Usyk proved to be too sleek for Joshua and proved why he remained unbeaten after 18 fights across his career. That typical southpaw stance and smooth footwork troubled Joshua from the outset and a flurry of punches left his star opponent on the ropes and desperate for the bell in the final round.
Joshua acknowledged his defeat with humility and positivity: “It’s a great lesson today. It was a great lesson. I know, we can look at it from a negative point of view, but for me, I gotta take it as a great lesson and build on that situation… I’m not a weak person. I don’t want to be in my bedroom sulking about the situation.
“I’m looking at it like a great lesson, go back, study and rejuvenate myself because nobody’s gonna do it for me.”
Confirming the rematch decision, Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s boxing promoter, said: “I spoke to him [Joshua]. It was a tough fight, gruelling fight, he’s not quite talking the way you’d expect him to talk at the moment. Devastated. Already talking about training again. They want to look at the eye socket, he says it’s fine.
“That was always the danger of the fight – you overthink the fight, you try and be too technical, you don’t use your attributes and you don’t make your mark early enough in the fight.
“AJ’s desire is still there. The fighter in AJ is already talking about, ‘I’ll win the rematch, I’ll win the rematch.’ It was a tough defeat. Usyk was the deserved winner and he’s got to make changes in the rematch.
“He will want to go straight back into that rematch, he will be the underdog in the rematch this time after that tonight, but that’s what he does. He chose tonight to take on a pound-for-pound great. It didn’t work out, but he should get credit for that.
“He was beaten by the better man and congratulations to Oleksandr Usyk.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
