LONDON, ENGLAND — Oleksandr Usyk shook up the heavyweight division to become a two-weight world champion with a stunning win over Anthony Joshua for the WBA, IBF and WBO world heavyweight titles Saturday.
The Ukrainian dominated much of the fight, rocking Joshua in the third round and the seventh round, and won by the judges’ scores of 117-112, 116-112, 115-113.
Usyk improves to 19-0 (13 KOs), while Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) tasted defeat in London for the first time in his career in front of a home crowd of 68,000 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Punch Stats PUNCHES JOSHUA USYK Total landed 123 148 Total thrown 641 529 Percent 19% 28% Jabs landed 52 52 Jabs thrown 427 309 Percent 12% 17% Power landed 71 96 Power thrown 214 220 Percent 33% 44% — Courtesy of CompuBox Joshua, the naturally bigger man who has lost the titles for a second time in two years, is now counting the considerable cost of another shock defeat which ends his hopes of fighting English rival Tyson Fury for all four world heavyweight titles next year.
WBC champion Fury defends his title in a third fight with American Deontay Wilder on Oct. 9, but the winner of that fight is now likely to pursue a clash with Usyk, who won the titles in just his third fight at heavyweight after unifying all four world titles at cruiserweight.
Most of the world heavyweight title belts are now back in Ukrainian hands with Usyk’s success, after brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko dominated the division while reigning as champions from 2004 to 2015, including one period when they held all four belts between them.
