Anthony Joshua broke down in tears following last night defeat to counterpart boxer Usyk. Oleksandr Usyk grabbed a second consecutive victory over Anthony Joshua to defend his unanimous WBO, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles.
Usyk won via a split decision at the King Abdullah Sports City Arena in Jeddah, taking it 116-112 and 115-113 respectively on the cards of Ukraine’s Viktor Fesechko and Britain’s Steve Gray. Glenn Feldman of the USA scored 115-113 for Joshua.
Anthony Joshua breaks down in tears following his loss to Usyk.
In a video of post match conference on BBC when the 32-year-old Briton was asked about his performance
“It’s really, really hard for me to say I’m proud of myself.
“I’m upset, really, deep down in my heart.”
“It will never break me, but it takes real strength not to break me and there is a little crack in the armour because that took a lot”.
‘When you’re angry you do stupid things’
Joshua lost his temper moments after Usyk had been declared the winner – dropping two of the champion’s belts over the top rope of the ring and then arguing with the opposing team.
“When you try to do things from your heart, not everyone is going to understand,” Joshua explained.
“It was just from the heart. I knew I was mad at myself. Not at anyone, just myself. I was as if I got to get out of here because I’m mad.
“When you’re angry, you might do stupid things. Then I realized this is a sport. I came back and did the right thing.”
Joshua’s promoter Hearn gave a passionate defence of his fighter.
“This is someone who I want my kids to look up to,” he said.
Use the winner said:
“I devote this victory to my family, my country, my team, to all the military defending this country – thank you so much,” he said, before calling out WBC champion Tyson Fury.
“I’m sure that Tyson Fury is not retired yet. I’m convinced he wants to fight me. I want to fight him. If I’m not fighting Fury, I’m not fighting at all.
“Only God knows whether I will fight him or not but all these gentlemen here around me, my team, they are going to help me.”
