Anthony Joshua loses world title

Oleksandr Usyk is the new unified heavyweight world champion after dethroning Anthony Joshua with an incredible performance in London last Saturday night.

The Ukrainian put on a masterclass in front of 65,000 fans inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, outclassing Joshua over 12 rounds, and hurting the defending champion on numerous occasions.

The scorecards – 117-112, 116-112, 115-113 – were all for Usyk and there was a mere shrug of the shoulders from Joshua as the second defeat of his professional career was confirmed.

Having seen a fight with fellow Briton Tyson Fury collapse last summer, Joshua opted to face his WBO mandatory challenger and former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk instead.

It appeared the easier fight for Joshua, but boxing’s triumphant return to stadium nights was soured for the home crowd by a truly exceptional performance from the challenger.

Speaking in an interview after the bout with BBC, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn suggested his fighter may have suffered a broken eye socket and would need to go to hospital.

“I don’t know if he has broken his eye socket, it doesn’t look great. He said he couldn’t see after the ninth round, obviously he was getting tagged a lot as well” he said.