And NEW Heavyweight Champion Of The World…

In our preview of the fight, which you can read here, we explored what Oleksandr had in his locker going into his heavyweight title bout with Anthony Joshua, and how he’d need to dig deep to leave the squared circle with four shiny new belts.

Now that we’ve had some time to unpack yesterday’s explosive encounter, let’s take a closer look at the tools Usyk employed to dismantle the defending champ, and when we can expect to see the next Anthony Joshua fight.

Always outnumbered. Never outboxed.

If boxing was a numbers game. AJ already had his mandatory challenger beat in every department. He’s taller, heavier, boasts a longer reach, more experience at heavyweight, and is surpassed only by Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather on Instagram followers.

Now we already knew the former champ’s social media presence wouldn’t be much of a factor on the night, but as it turns out, none of the other stats counted for much either.

Usyk turned AJ over in front of a 65,000-strong home crowd to prove he can compete with anyone at heavyweight, especially in the championship rounds, where some doubted that he could endure sustained punishment from the sport’s heaviest hitters.

Fights, weight, height, crowd. Who cares? The only numbers that matter are the ones on the judge’s scorecard. And last night they scored it 115-112, 116-112, 117-111 for Usyk.

Sweat The Technique

It was obvious the challenger came into this fight well prepared. Painfully so for AJ. But he started and finished as he so often does, by looking comfortable in the early stages, growing in confidence with each passing round, before finally dominating.

When you’re as skilled a boxer as Usyk, when you have his timing, technique, and intelligence, the gameplan doesn’t need to change drastically between fights. His assuredness in the ring was there for all to see.

In contrast, Anthony Joshua trimmed down for the fight, and he entered the ring looking slimmer than he had in any of his previous bouts. Were his tactics to outbox the better boxer, one of the best P2P fighters on the planet? Was he waiting for the right moment to unleash that big right hand? If so, why lose the weight advantage?

Usyk might have been in trouble if he had a fight on his hands, but instead, he had a boxing match – and there aren’t many boxers better than Oleksandr Usyk.

What next for Anthony Joshua?

Usyk, the 2/1 underdog is now the proud owner of the WBA, IBF, and WBO heavyweight belts after just his third fight in this weight class. But before the Ukrainian can unify the division, he’ll need to overcome AJ once more in the obligatory rematch.

So, when and where will we see the next Joshua vs Usyk fight?

We expect this to happen sometime early next year, and Joshua may need to leave behind the UK rain and fight in Ukraine, to end Usyk’s reign.

It’s too early to give you the exact Oleksandr Usyk v Anthony Joshua fight time, but we’re guessing you can watch the fight in and around March or April 2022.

As soon as we have the latest boxing news on the Usyk v Joshua fight, we’ll let you know. For the latest boxing schedule, boxing results and to bet on boxing tonight, check our markets on the Parimatch website.

And remember, like the new heavyweight champion of the world and our Responsible Gambling Ambassador, Oleksandr Usyk, says:

Wise words indeed.