Oleksandr Usyk retained his WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight belts on Saturday after defeating Anthony Joshua via split decision at the Jeddah Superdome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Usyk, of Ukraine, has now won two in a row over the former champion Joshua after defeating the former titleholder last September.
Usyk out-boxed Joshua and won by split decision, but the furious Brit who didn’t seem to take his meeting very well. took hold of two belts, threw them down and stormed out of the ring.
After some talking to by his team, he came back and made an impassioned speech to explain his post-fight frustrations and congratulate his opponent. The Englishman began by referencing his youth and troubles with police as he reflected on his career following the devastating defeat and applauded his competitor. “If you knew my story you would understand the passion. I ain’t no amateur boxer from five years old that was an elite prospect from youth.
I was going to jail, I got bail and I started training my a3se off, I wanted to be able to f#ght. I’m stealing this Usyk I’m sorry, but it’s because of the passion we put into this. This guy to beat me tonight, maybe I could have done better, but it shows the level of hard work I put in so please give him a round of applause as our heavyweight champion of the world.”
However, Usyk was emotional after the win as he spoke of of his war-torn home country. “I devote this victory to my country, my family, my team and to the military defending the country. This is already history. Many generations are going to watch this fight, especially the round when someone tried to beat me hard. But I turned it in a different way.”
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