The now 19-0-0 Usyk controlled the pace of the fight from the first round. Which as he said himself, was very tiring and a lot of hard work. Clearly it was the right strategy as he outclassed the taller, bigger, former champion Joshua.
This win takes Usyk to the number two spot in the world heavyweight rankings, with the potential to fight the winner of Fury Vs Wilder 3.
However Joshua is already talking about a rematch, as they agreed on a rematch clause, despite it not being obligatory. In the post-fight press conference Anthony described the loss of vision in his right eye from the 9th round onwards and gracious in defeat, he described the loss as a blessing and a big lesson. Confident he now knows the mistakes he made and won’t be repeating them in the rematch.
There’s no date set for the rematch, but promoter Eddie Hearn said after the fight that Joshua already has his eyes on the rematch with Usyk. Ironically he’ll first need to recover from a suspected injury to his eye socket.
He said: “I spoke to him, he is obviously devastated with the result but immediately he was focusing on training again. They are taking a look at the eye socket, but congratulations to Usyk he is an incredible fighter and well done.”
“Usyk is very fit, was well conditioned and exercised his style very well in the fight and he was really good tonight and will go down in history tonight.”
“This was a tough fight for AJ, getting beaten by a pound-for-pound best fighter and he will have to make changes for that defeat.”
“But he has to make changes and impose his style to win the rematch, or he will lose again.”
If the rematch is anything like the AJ Vs Ruiz rematch, then expect Joshua to execute a precise, exact plan in order to reclaim his title.
