Heavyweight champion said his corner helped him execute his plan, while a pensive Anthony Joshua will analyze mistakes. The new champion walked in first, just after one in the morning, with his face bearing the brutal realities of heavyweight boxing. Despite his dominant defeat of Anthony Joshua on Saturday night at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Oleksandr Usyk wore the marks of battle. A jagged cut ran above his right brow while his bruised skin had turned a shade of burst violet below that same eye. The swollen mouse beneath his left eye was even more prominent and a reminder that Usyk had fought 12 rounds against a world champion who weighed 19 pounds more than him.
Usyk is not a small man but he also gave away four inches in reach and three inches in height. Yet in the final moments of the last round the usually imposing figure of Joshua, who is 6ft 6in, had sagged against the ropes as Usyk came close to winning by stoppage.
A singular character, who is as intelligent as he is amusing, Usyk was nonchalant as he sat down to address his stunning rise in boxing’s premier division to become the new IBF, WBA and WBO world champion in only his third fight as a heavyweight. When someone asked him to break down his fight strategy, for this had been a dazzling display, he spoke in Ukrainian. His fellow countrymen and women laughed before the translator tried to inject some of that comedy into English.
“The plan was just to walk in, to see, to start. So we went in, we saw, we started and then in the 12th round they said speed up and so I did and then they said: ‘….and the new [heavyweight champion of the world].’ So that was the plan.”
Usyk continued in more serious vein. “I tried a few times [for the stoppage]. I put my speed into it. I punched him a couple of times but then I was losing rhythm. I went back to my corner and my trainer said: ‘Hey, you’re trying to knock him down. You have to do your work. You have to throw your jab because, if you concentrate on knocking him out, you’re going to lose your rhythm.”
Had this been his biggest and hardest fight? “Yes at this point it was the biggest fight in my career,” Usyk said before digging another little blow into Joshua’s dented ego. “But it wasn’t the hardest.”
I liked Usyk most of all when he was asked about his boxing legacy and how best he might move ahead as the new heavyweight king. He leant forward and, speaking with soft urgency, touched upon the demands of this unforgiving business and his desire to live normally again – at least until the next time he steps back into boxing’s dark world.
“I wanted to live,” Usyk said as he spoke poignantly about all he had sacrificed. “I wanted to take all four belts. But I wanted to take my kids to school. I wanted to plant trees. I wanted to water the apple trees. I wanted to see my wife more often. I spent three months in camp. I want to live.”
He seemed just an ordinary man then, tired and emotional after a draining night, and the applause from the media as he left was unusually warm. It also served as recognition of his mighty achievement.
I was even more moved by Joshua’s arrival. Two hours earlier, not long after his titles had been ripped from him, there had been rumors at ringside he had sustained a broken orbital bone. We were told that he would be taken to hospital. But then he walked in – as ready to talk after a crushing defeat as he usually is while anticipating another multimillion-pound‑spinning victory.