Anthony Joshua reacts to Oleksandr Usyk defeat

AFTER a humbling loss to Oleksandr Usyk, Anthony Joshua intends to rebuild and rematch the Ukrainian.

“We’ll be back again,” Joshua promised. “Great 12 rounds, great experience as well in the ring and progress from this point on once again. We’ll be doing it all again soon.

“I’m going to lift myself up, I’m going to look at myself in the mirror and say I know I can do it. I’ve just got to put myself up to it.”

Usyk was simply brilliant on Saturday night as he outfoxed and outboxed Joshua to win a unanimous decision. But the latter insists he can learn from this defeat and improve.

“We’ll come back again, I’ll pick up from where we left off now and then I’ll come back and try to be better. I’m sure I’ll be better in the next one,” he said. “He still gets hit, he gets hit a lot and in the rematch we’ll just learn how to hit him more and be more concussive with our punch selection.”

“It’s the opportunities I gave him. It’s not so much him, I’m just going to go back and look at myself and correct my wrongs,” he continued. “I’m just looking to go in there improved stronger, smarter. I believe I’ll get a good win in the next fight because of what I’ve learned this fight. I’m a quick learner and we’ll bounce back.

“This experience today is invaluable. What I went through today will have a massive benefit for me in the next fight.”

His right eye picked damage, Joshua says he “couldn’t see” from the ninth round. He does have a rematch clause and so can force that second fight. Promoter Eddie Hearn is eyeing February or March of next year for a second Usyk fight.

“I’m a different kind of animal. I’m not a sulker. This is a blessed opportunity. To fight for the heavyweight championship of the world, to fight good fighters time and time again,” Joshua maintained. “I’m not going to go home tonight and be crying about it, because this is war. It’s a long process… I’ve got an opportunity to go back to the drawing board. So I can’t go back and sulk because that’s wasting time.

“I’m putting my energy into ways I can improve.”