The Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight was a fascinating one. Read our article to get the complete details on the Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight.
The Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight was called ‘The Perfect Storm.’ One of the parties involved was Anthony Joshua, the former IBO, WBO, IBF, and WBA (Super) heavyweight champion. His opponent was Oleksandr Usyk, WBO's heavyweight mandatory challenger and the former undisputed cruiserweight champion. The fight took place on 25 September 2021. The win by Oleksandr Usyk might have disrupted plans for a fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. The former undisputed cruiserweight champion is now looking to be the undisputed heavyweight champion. Oleksandr had a great match and earned his victory over Anthony Joshua by a unanimous decision.
With his victory, Oleksandr now has the IBF, WBO, and WBA (Super) titles held by Anthony. The latter was kept off-balance throughout the match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London with a mixture of a strong left hand, head movement, and footwork. Anthony could not find a way to combat Oleksandr successfully during the match. But he made things complicated for him in the middle rounds by working the body and adjusting. But Oleksandr could not be budged and finished as capably as he had started the fight. There were times when Oleksandr had hurt Anthony. But the latter was smart enough to get out of harm's way. Anthony utilized a jab to remain in the match and used his right hand. But Oleksandr remained on the move the whole match. So, Anthony could not settle down on his punches and examine the punch resistance of his opponent.
It was pretty tight going into the final rounds. But Oleksandr continued the momentum and gave some combos to ensure that he would win the judges' required marks in his opponent's home stadium. The final round was trying as Oleksandr sealed the match by stumbling Anthony with a left hand and landed successive punches into him till the final bell was sounded.
Oleksandr became the first undisputed cruiserweight champion a few years ago with four belts. This happened after he won the World Boxing Super Series tournament. The next year, he decided to move up to the heavyweight division. Then, he successfully petitioned the WBO to be allotted the status of the mandatory challenger after Andy Ruiz won the titles against Anthony. As per the rules of the WBO, if a super champion moves to a separate weight class, he can become a mandatory challenger status in the main event of that weight class. Anthony regained his titles by defeating Andy Ruiz in a rematch some months later. This led the WBO to commit a fight between Oleksandr and Anthony.
The following day, the IBF also told Anthony to fight against their mandatory challenger, Kubrat Pulev. Anthony duly fought against him and gained a victory the next year. But the WBO did not order a match between Anthony and Oleksandr because there were talks of an undisputed heavyweight title bout between Anthony and Tyson Fury. During this time, Oleksandr's team got into negotiations with Joe Joyce. They wanted to set up a match for the WBO interim title. Tyson Fury also confirmed the date of his fight with Anthony. But the next day, a court told him to complete a contractual obligation and fight against Deontay Wilder before September of this year.
The following day, the WBO gave a show-cause notice to Anthony's promoter Eddie Hearn. They gave him two days to provide proof of a contract between Tyson Fury and Anthony. If he failed to do so, Anthony would have to enter into negotiations with Oleksandr. The promoter needed an extension of the deadline. But that was not given by the WBO. The organization then told Anthony to complete a deal with Oleksandr within two weeks before organizing a purse bid for the rights to the fight. At the end of June, the promoter said that the fight between Anthony and Oleksandr would take place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on 25 September.
Oleksandr became the third boxer in history after David Haye and Evander Holyfield, who attained world titles at heavyweight and cruiserweight. The victory also dwindled the hopes of an undisputed unification fight of Anthony with Tyson Fury. In the fight, Oleksandr connected more punches in total than Anthony. He was also more accurate between the two. Oleksandr sealed the fight by giving nearly 30 punches in the final round. This represented the highest number of punches ever landed by any rival of Anthony. In the ninth round, Anthony lost vision in his right eye. After the end of the match, Oleksandr celebrated his win by doing a Cossack dance in the ring.
The critics highly praised Oleksandr's performance during the match. BBC Sport said that the performance was a masterclass, incredible, and exceptional. Roy Jones Jr. said that Oleksandr did not defeat Anthony, but he dominated his rival. Max Kellerman said that the match was similar to Spinks and Holmes’s, where the reign of a bigger boxer had ended similarly. Lennox Lewis said that it was a tremendous tactical performance. Chris Eubank added it was one of the top statements in the sport for a very long time. The new champion Oleksandr said that his trainer had told him not to knock out Anthony during the match. He said that he had tried to hit him hard and knock him out at the start of the match. But his trainer stopped him and told him to do his job.
Following the match, Anthony's team has activated the rematch clause to fight against Oleksandr early next year. Anthony's promoter has said that he will be more aggressive in that fight. He said that the game plan in the match would not be to move and box but to go in and hurt Oleksandr. Meanwhile, Frank Warren has said that Anthony should not try to go for the rematch against Oleksandr because he will never beat him. He said that a fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony could still happen despite the outcome of this match. But he believes that people will still be interested in watching a match between Tyson Fury and Anthony, especially in the UK.
Some believe that a potential match between Tyson Fury and Anthony is completely off the table after the latter's defeat at the hands of Oleksandr. According to Adam Catterall, "unless we get something miraculous in the rematch with Oleksandr Usyk, where Anthony Joshua comes raging back in and knocks the dude out. Listen, he has done it before. He has revamped before, hasn't he? He got embarrassed by Andy Ruiz Jr, went away and came back with a different game plan, boxed completely differently in the rematch, and got the job done. Oleksandr Usyk and Andy Ruiz are two different cats, though. Can he do this in the second fight? Yes, he can because it is heavyweight boxing. I personally think that is completely off the table."
Conclusion
The Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight resulted in a victory for Oleksandr. Now, he will be keenly watching the match between Deontay Wilder III and WBC champion Tyson Fury. Oleksandr will be looking to challenge the victor of the undisputed championship. But Anthony also has a rematch clause in hand and is likely to enforce it soon.