Usyk surprises and snatches titles from Joshua

Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk dethroned Anthony Joshua as three-time heavyweight champion on Saturday night by taking him the distance and defeating him on points, fairly and fairly, in front of 70,000 fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England.

The judges’ scorecards were 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113, all in favor of Usyk, recognizing his better performance in the ring against a Joshua who, with conditions, was hesitant in the ring and ended up paying the price of not having risked more in the fight.

Usyk, who hurt Joshua early in the fight and made him doubt his abilities in the ring, finally won the World Boxing Association, International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization belts.

With this victory, Usky improved his record to 19-0 with 13 knockouts, while Joshua stood at 24-2 with 22 chloroforms.

This result closes the door on the expected unification fight between Joshua and World Boxing Council champion Tyson Fury, which was already set for this year.

Fury will expose the WBC belt next October 9 against Deontay Wilder in a rematch fight and now the winner is set to become Usyk’s next opponent.

Usky now won three championships at heavyweight after unifying all four cruiserweight championships in 2018.