Oleksandr Usyk says he purposely didn't knock out Anthony Joshua; here's why

Oleksandr Usyk defeated Anthony Joshua on Saturday in front of a stadium packed with 66,267 fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London to claim the IBF, WBA, and WBO heavyweight titles. Joshua saw the end of his second reign as the world heavyweight champion, as he was hurt by Joshua’s accurate left-hand punch in the third round which caused swelling around his eye. After the fight, Usyk mentioned that his trainer asked him not to knock out Joshua as the match came to a 12th-round stoppage. 

As per AP, Usyk after the unanimous points win over Joshua said, “I had no objective to knock him out because my trainer, in my corner, pushed me not to do that. In the beginning, I hit him hard and tried to knock him out. But then my trainer said: 'Just stop, and do your job’”.

Usyk, post his first fight since stepping up from the cruiserweight division to the heavyweight division became the third man, after Evander Holyfield and David Haye, to win the world title first in cruiserweight, then in heavyweight. 

Oleksandr Usyk won gold medal in 2012 London Olympics

After achieving the feat, Usyk added that the endeavour means a lot to him, as the fight went exactly like he expected it to go. Although there were a couple of moments where Joshua pushed him hard, there was nothing special in the fight with Joshua. Usyk is now unbeaten in 19 matches, after stepping up to the heavyweight in 2019. Usyk has previously won the 2011 World Championship and also the gold medal for Ukraine in the heavyweight division at the 2012 London Olympics. Following his gold medal win, he turned to professional boxing in 2013 and became the undisputed cruiserweight champion in 2018.

Meanwhile, his opponent in the match Joshua also shed light on the fight. Joshua said, “I’m not going to be going home tonight, crying about it. Because this is war. I can’t sulk. That is wasting time.” Joshua concluded by saying that he is 100-110 % sure that there is going to be a rematch of this fight. This was his second loss in his pro career of 25 fights.

(With inputs from AP)

(Image: AP)