Anthony Joshua apologises to Oleksandr Usyk for bizarre meltdown after gutting defeat

On Feb 11, 2023

Anthony Joshua has spoken about how he apologised to Ukrainian heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk for his bizarre meltdown after his narrow defeat in their re-match.

AJ lost their first fight by unanimous decision in September 2021 and then 11 months later felt he should have won their re-match – which was awarded to Usyk by split decision.

After the result of the judges’ scorecards was announced, Joshua threw Usyk’s heavyweight world title belts out of the ring before appearing to storm off. The British fighter returned to the Jeddah ring to deliver a rambling speech about his boxing journey and the situation in Ukraine. AJ also claimed he was stealing Usyk’s belt.

Joshua was criticised for the rant with British boxing star Carl Froch who claimed that AJ stole a special moment from his opponent. Joshua, who has a professional record of 24-3, is preparing his his return to competitive action against Jermaine Franklin at London’s O2 Arena on April 1.

AJ says that he has apologised to Usyk through fellow Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko, who he beat in 2017.

“Listen, I’m not perfect, it was not the right thing to have done. I didn’t speak to Usyk,” Joshua told the Daily Mail. “I spoke to Wladimir (Klitschko) and I said, “give Usyk a pat on the shoulder and I apologise.

Anthony Joshua (L) embraces Oleksandr Usyk after their fight last year
(Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

“But it was just raw, uncut and… It may not make sense to a lot of people but it made a lot of sense to me and it was just how much it means to a degree. I thought I’d feel like that at the end of my career when it’s all said and done and I’d be like, “Wow! What a rollercoaster. I made it through the trenches.”

Usyk who holds the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring heavyweight titles is set to fight Tyson Fury to become the unified world heavyweight champion. Joshua feels that it should have been him who was fighting Fury for the titles.

Oleksandr Usyk celebrates after beating Anthony Joshua for the second time
(Image: PA)

He added: “I feel getting so close to fighting for the undisputed title and getting that fight with [Tyson] Fury that people want so much. I was like “yeah, I’m nearly there” and then bosh when I didn’t hear my name.

“Then there were certain things in the ring that were said – not excuses – and one of them was ‘you’re big and strong, you’re strong’. Remember a lot of athletes from the African-Caribbean community are told they’re strong and I feel like it’s quite degrading, because you don’t get mentioned in terms of talent or technique.

“When he said I’m big and strong the alarm bells went off. There were loads of things that were triggering me at the time, but it was just raw and uncut emotion.”