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 on 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 68,000 home crowd at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
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.
Oleksandr Usyk was crowned as the new unified world heavyweight champion after a unanimous decision win over Anthony Joshua.
Anthony Joshua earlier said he had no intention of vacating any of his heavyweight belts.
The British boxer put his WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight belts on the line against the WBO mandatory challenger from Ukraine in London on Saturday.
Usyk has become the third boxer after Evander Holyfield and David Haye to win world titles at cruiserweight and
The 34-year-old won heavyweight gold at the London 2012 Olympics while Joshua triumphed in the super-heavyweight division.
Before the fight, Joshua weighed in 19 pounds heavier than Usyk.
Britain’s Joshua, 31, tipped the scales at 240 pounds (109 kilograms), with the Ukrainian challenger coming in at a career-high 221.25 pounds.
