Anthony Joshua stunned by Oleksandr Usyk in London

ANTHONY JOSHUA has been beaten unanimously by Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London

Anthony Joshua was defending his world champion belts this evening at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London against Aleksandr Usyk, and his dreams have come crashing down around him as all three judges awarded the fight to the Ukrainian, who now becomes a two-weight unified champ, after already cleaning up at cruiserweight, and now has the heavyweight WBA, IBF, and WBO belts.

Even though the Brit boxer had a clause inserted in the fight contract for a rematch should he lose, this terrible defeat must surely cast doubt on his ever getting into the ring with Tyson Fury for the much-hyped £500m showdown that has been anticipated.

In an easy unanimous decision, all three judges scored the fight 117-112, 116-112, 115-113, to the Ukrainian champion, who was on sparkling form from the moment the bell rang for Round One, jerking AJ’s head back with a sharp jab just seconds into the contest, and landing several hooks through the British man’s guard.

Joshua had a better time in the second round, but by the third, Usyk was again dangerous, with a brilliant combination of punches rocking AJ towards the end of the round.

The tide seemed to turn in the fifth, as Joshua took control, hitting the Ukrainian with a series of body shots, causing Usyk to even miss landing some of his punches, and by the sixth, Usyk was really on the back foot as Joshua powered into him, but come the seventh round, it was all change, as Usyk landed a huge left.

Into round eight and AJ was looking good, but somehow the man from Kiev was very deceiving, because each time he looked to be tiring, he suddenly came forward, full of power, and both men looked to have levelled out by the ninth.

Both fighters showed cuts on their right eyes by the tenth round, although it was the British corner that looked the most concerned, as their man did look to be in trouble with a very badly swollen eye, but he was in charge for the eleventh round.

By the final round, Usyk was in full command, as the Brit looked exhausted, sagging against the ropes, and his eye really in a bad way, and news came in after the fight that he was rushed to hospital for a check-up, with suspected damage to his right eye socket, as reported by thesun.co.uk.

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