Anthony Joshua has reacted to Oleksandr Usyk’s much-talked-about victory over Tyson Fury with a one-word comment on social media.
After weeks of build-up, Usyk defeated Fury by unanimous decision (116-112, 116-112, 116-112) to retain his WBC, WBO and WBA heavyweight world titles at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
The Ukrainian landed several clean shots on his opponent throughout and rather predictably, he outworked a tired-looking Fury in the latter rounds.
But many agreed that the 116-112 scoring in favour of Usyk was unfair given how close the fight was. In fact, footage has since emerged of Fury's reaction to the defeat and well, he was far from happy.
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So what did Anthony Joshua think? Well, the former two-time unified WBO, IBF, and WBA heavyweight champion gave Usyk the nod over Fury on his unofficial scorecard.
Joshua, who was scoring the fight for streaming service DAZN, scored the bout 115-114 in favour of Usyk, which was much closer than the judges' final scorecard.
Taking to social media on Saturday night, AJ gave a one-word reaction to Usyk’s win. He wrote the word "respect" on his Instagram story alongside the Ukraine flag.
Eddie Hearn, who has called for Fury to fight Joshua at Wembley Stadium, said he thought Saturday night's contest was a draw.
He added: "I couldn’t split them. I thought there were so many close rounds. I really struggled to split them, it was more of a chess match tonight, I had it very close. I just didn’t feel it was an 8-4 fight."
Fury's promoter Frank Warren, on the other hand, was in a state of disbelief after seeing the final result.
Armed with what appeared to be a paper copy of all three scorecards from the event, Warren gave a quite remarkable in-ring interview with Ade Oladipo.
"It's nuts," he said. "Did you have him as only winning four rounds out of eight? Very harsh. It's nuts. I don't get it. But it is what it is, and we'll see what happens in the future with Tyson."
Minutes later, TNT Sports reporter Jaydee Dyer spoke to Warren outside the ring, with the promoter analysing each copy of the scorecard he had been given while speaking to the camera.
He added: "Tyson was dumbfounded. They gave him four rounds out of the 12, which is impossible.
"I've been around a long time and I know I'm biased, but one judge didn't give him, any rounds from round six onwards. Look! No rounds. How can that be? That's impossible.
"Same with the other judge. They gave him one round in the last six, and the same here with this guy. It's crazy. I'm calm and collected, I'm not screaming and shouting. That is a nonsense.
"Oscar de la Hoya had him [Fury] winning by three or four rounds. And he's a neutral."
Topics: Boxing, Boxing News, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Oleksandr Usyk
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