I couldn’t see anything in the 9th round – Anthony Joshua says after losing his IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight titles to Oleksandr Usyk

Two-time former heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua has revealed he had issues with his vision starting in the ninth round of his fight with Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night

In the late stages of the fight, Joshua began to have issues with his vision after several punches to his face from his mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Usyk put on a performance of a lifetime, as he outboxed Joshua over twelve rounds to capture the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight titles with a unanimous decision. 

Joshua, who is now looking to activate his rematch clause, had this to say after the fight:

 “I can’t go back and sulk – that’s wasting time.

“I couldn’t see in the ninth round, couldn’t see anything really because my eye was shut.

“It was a good experience because in adversity you’ve just got to learn to control yourself, stay on top of things, so when I couldn’t see anything – it’s the first time that it’s happened in a fight.”

“I’m ready to get back to training. It was a good twelve rounder, so I’ll be in a good place when I get back into training to pick up where we left off,” Joshua said.