A fight of contrasting style ended up with former unified cruiserweight champion and London Olympic gold medalist Oleksandr Usyk winning by close unanimous decision over Derek Chisora who failed to keep his WBO Inter-Continental heavyweight belt at the SSE Arena in London Saturday night (Sunday in Manila). Judges scores: Robert Williams 117-112, Jan Christensen and Yury Koptsev 115-113 all in favor of Usyk.
Usyk, from Ukraine, the World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight champion and fighting in only his second heavyweight bout, used the entire ring, dancing and circling over the raging and swinging Derek Chisora. The bulkier Chisora had his way early on but appeared to lost steam midway in the fight as Usyk found his range and rhythm who regularly connected with jabs and pinpoint combinations to the head and body of Chisora.
Usyk appeared to hurt Chisora towards the end of the eight round and in total control of the 9th but Chisora showed his heart by fighting back in the championship rounds, puffing and swinging but mostly missing the target. Usyk however stuck to his plan by jabbing and throwing accurate counters as the final bell sounded to end the bout.
Usyk said after the fight that he is gunning for all the heavyweight belts three of which (WBO, IBF, WBA) are tucked by Anthony Joshua was an interested observer at ringside.
Usyk improves his undefeated record to 18 wins with 13 stoppages while Chisora drops to 32-10-0, 23KOs.
Unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is ringside during the Usyk-Chisora fight.
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