"If Joshua comes down hard from the start without much respect, he will win early. But if he starts boxing Usyk, it will be shooting himself in the foot," Dillian Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) said before the fight.
Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) showed great boxing, confidently beating Anthony Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) and taking the IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight belts from him.
"I said several times that if Joshua wanted to box with Usyk, he would lose. And he lost because he chose stupid tactics. He will always lose a boxing fight to someone like Usyk. If he had attacked him, pressured him aggressively, shortened his distance and punched more, he would have knocked out Usyk, maybe even in the first rounds. But he chose a boxing match, squeezed and waited it out. After all, he's bigger and stronger, he had to attack harder. AJ looked like a man devoid of ambition and fire. Usyk was hitting lefts in the first round, and Joshua was starting to respond to those punches and feints. Somebody is bigger and stronger, somebody is worse at boxing, but he doesn't have to box, he has to punch aggressively," Whyte said.
It's interesting that in his next fight already Whyte will have to face an uncomfortable left hander and prove his words in practice. On October 30 Whyte will cross gloves with Otto Wallin (22-1, 14 KOs).
After twelve rounds the judges unanimously awarded the Ukrainian with scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 117-112. Now according to the terms of his contract Usyk must give the Englishman a rematch. Promoter Eddie Hearn has already announced that such duel can take place at the turn of February and March in Great Britain.
