Anthony Joshua vs Oleksandr Usyk

Former undisputed world cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk became unified heavyweight champion by defeating Anthony Joshua on a unanimous decision over 12 rounds at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on September 25, 2021. Joshua, defending the WBA, IBF and WBO titles, weighed 240lb, while Usyk came in at 221lb. Referee Michael Alexander controlled the contest before a crowd of approximately 65,000. The official scores were 117-112 from Viktor Fesechko, 116-112 from Steve Weisfeld and 115-113 from Howard Foster, all for the Ukrainian. Usyk consequently became only the third former cruiserweight champion, after Evander Holyfield and David Haye, to win a recognised world heavyweight title.

The opening rounds immediately established the difficulty Joshua faced. Usyk boxed from the southpaw stance, constantly altering his position and forcing Joshua to reset before he could throw. His straight left reached the champion repeatedly in the first round, and he changed levels well, touching the body before coming back to the head. Joshua attempted to establish the jab and occasionally sent the right towards Usyk’s body, but he was unable to fix the challenger in one place. Usyk was not merely moving away. He stepped around Joshua, created new angles and then attacked before the larger man could turn sufficiently to answer. The second followed much the same course, with Joshua more active behind the jab but still being beaten to the target by Usyk’s straight left.

Usyk increased his authority in the third and fourth. He began taking the initiative more readily and caught Joshua with several clean left hands as the champion attempted to close the distance. Joshua was briefly knocked off balance early in the fourth and was increasingly forced to follow rather than cut off the ring. The champion did begin to land the right hand with greater regularity as the round progressed, and he showed signs of solving some of the problems posed by Usyk’s movement, but the challenger remained the more accurate boxer. He was unusually comfortable for the smaller man, neither intimidated by Joshua’s size nor willing to surrender the centre of the ring without purpose.

Joshua produced his best spell during the middle rounds. In the fifth, he began working more consistently to the body and found Usyk with the right hand as the challenger stepped away. The sixth was another improved round for the champion, who appeared more settled and more willing to punch with Usyk rather than wait for him to finish moving. For a time the contest had narrowed. Joshua’s heavier punches were beginning to leave their mark around Usyk’s right eye, and the champion was having some success with straight rights and body shots. Usyk answered in the seventh. He increased his tempo again, found Joshua with the straight left and briefly forced him backwards. One left caught Joshua as his hands dropped and disrupted the champion’s balance, giving Usyk another clear round after Joshua’s recovery through the fifth and sixth.

Joshua had another useful round in the eighth. He pressed more effectively, landed the right to the head and body and for once prevented Usyk from controlling every change of distance. The champion was beginning to find the uppercut to the body and used his greater size more productively than he had in the opening stages. There was remarkably little clinching for a contest between heavyweights of such contrasting dimensions; both generally preferred to box at punching range. Usyk appeared to be working harder to maintain his movement, but he never lost his organisation. In the ninth he steadied himself, returned to the jab and straight left and regained command after Joshua had threatened to make the contest close.

The final three rounds belonged decisively to Usyk. Joshua was bleeding from the nose in the tenth and swelling had developed badly beneath his right eye, while Usyk carried a cut near his own right eye. The Ukrainian nevertheless remained the quicker man. He repeatedly stepped outside Joshua’s lead foot, landed the left and moved before the return came. Joshua continued looking for the right hand but increasingly threw from positions in which he could not follow with another punch. Usyk’s combinations in the eleventh left the champion uncertain and forced him to hold briefly. The physical signs were now against Joshua. His right eye was closing, and his reactions had slowed, while Usyk, despite the work he had put in, still had enough movement to create the angles which had troubled the champion from the start.

Usyk finished with his strongest round. Rather than protect his advantage, he attacked from the beginning of the twelfth and repeatedly landed the straight left. Joshua answered with occasional rights but could no longer match the challenger’s speed of combination. In the closing seconds, Usyk drove Joshua backwards with a succession of punches and had him hurt and leaning against the ropes as the final bell sounded. CompuBox credited Usyk with 29 landed punches in the last round, the highest total recorded against Joshua in a single round. Across the fight, Usyk was credited with 148 punches landed from 529 thrown, while Joshua landed 123 from 641. Usyk therefore landed more while throwing considerably fewer and connected at approximately 28 per cent compared with Joshua’s 19 per cent.

There was no reasonable dispute over the verdict. Foster’s 115-113 card was the closest, while Weisfeld had Usyk ahead 116-112 and Fesechko 117-112. The official cards show that Joshua had periods of success, particularly through the fifth, sixth and eighth rounds, but all three judges gave Usyk each of the final four. Joshua had attempted to match an outstanding southpaw boxer at his own sort of contest rather than consistently imposing the physical advantages of the larger heavyweight. He rarely forced Usyk into sustained exchanges at close quarters and did not use his weight and strength enough to slow the challenger. Usyk, by contrast, controlled the distance, altered the angle after punching and remained accurate even when Joshua briefly improved. The defeat was Joshua’s second as a professional and ended his second reign as unified champion. For Usyk, who had previously held all four major cruiserweight belts, it completed his successful move into the heavyweight division and established him at the head of it after only three contests at the weight.

This was the night Joshua got his tactics badly wrong. I said at the time that trying to have a technical boxing match with Usyk was playing straight into his hands. Usyk had already shown at cruiserweight that his feet, angles and timing were world-class. You don’t give a bloke like that room to think.

Joshua had the size, reach and strength advantage, but he never really imposed it. He stood at long range trying to match Usyk for movement and timing, and that was never going to work. Usyk kept stepping outside the lead foot, changing the angle and firing that straight left before Joshua had properly reset. By the time AJ started getting the right hand going in the middle rounds, Usyk had already established the rhythm of the fight.

What impressed me most about Usyk was that he wasn’t frightened to stand his ground. Everyone expected him to spend the night running from the bigger man, but he didn’t. He controlled the centre, made Joshua hesitate and then finished the fight stronger.

For me, Joshua needed to rough him up, lean on him, hit the body and make those smaller-man legs carry his weight. Instead, he tried to beat one of the best pure boxers in the world.

That was the mistake. Usyk didn’t just win. He made Joshua fight his fight.