Tyson Fury will be gutted despite predicting Anthony Joshua's loss to Oleksandr Usyk

Tyson Fury will be gutted after watching fellow British heavyweight Anthony Joshua suffer an agonising defeat to Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night, proving his fight prediction right in the process. Joshua went all the way with Usyk and was outpointed on home soil as the visiting fighter won via unanimous decision thanks to a superb performance.

Inside a raucous Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Joshua sought to defend his IBF, WBA and WBO titles and clinch the 25th victory of his professional career.

Instead his record now reads 25-2 (22 KOs) after the Ukrainian southpaw became the second man after Andy Ruiz Jr to beat the Watford-born slugger.

The two London 2012 Olympic gold medallists produced an engrossing 12 rounds but the judges rightly sided with Usyk as he produced the superior show of boxing in north London.

Joshua was wobbled in round three after finding himself outboxed early on in the fight but battled back brilliantly to edge the mid-rounds.

Both fighters were soon left wearing wounds into the latter stages of the bout with Usyk cut and Joshua having a severely swollen eye and a bloodied nose.

Former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk however rallied to ensure that he was victorious and all three judges scored in his favour.

As a result Usyk remains unbeaten in his career, now at 19-0. He now holds three of the four heavyweight belts, only missing the WBC strap currently owned by Fury.

Speaking to BoxingScene.com pre-fight, Fury had actually predicted Usyk to come out on top, saying: “I expect it to be awkward, maybe a bit of a chess match for a few rounds. And I expect AJ to run out of ideas, really.

“If he doesn’t land on him early and get him out of there with big punches, then I see it being a tough night for AJ and maybe even a stoppage loss.

“I’m not a betting man, so I don’t really bet. But, you know, I think it’s a real pick ’em fight. Whoever you’d like to pick on the night maybe would win, but you know, I can make a lot of reasons why AJ would lose this fight and Usyk would win.”

But the Gypsy King will of course be disappointed not to have seen Joshua come out on top. Why? Because Fury had made it clear he wants to fight his countryman – ideally with all four belts on the line – to categorically underline himself as the best heavyweight boxer about.

Talking to Gary Neville on Sky Sports’ The Overlap earlier in September, Fury said: “I have never been optimistic about this fight happening.

“Even when the deal was done, I was never optimistic it and guess what? It never happened. I do think, sooner or later, it has to happen.

“Even if we go AWOL, throw all the belts in the bin, to fight each other? I would do that, if that makes sense. But I’m not sure he would be willing to do that.”

Usyk’s win means Joshua will surely rematch the Ukrainian early in 2022 rather than take on Fury next up, and an AJ-Fury fight may thrown into further jeopardy if Deontay Wilder defeats Fury in their October 9 trilogy fight.

The Bronze Bomber wants to take back the WBC belt Fury took from him in February 2020 and the two do battle once again in Las Vegas.

Should Wilder win, will the pair go head-to-head a fourth time? There’s not been too many quadrilogies over the years but don’t rule it out, though Fury has said himself he’s not actually bothered about the belts.

There’s of course the possibility of Fury and Joshua going head-to-head even if the former follows AJ by losing his titles and both fail to regain them.

But obviously that fight then carries far less prestige than it would’ve if it was a bout to become the undisputed king of the 200lb-plus division.

It remains to be seen whether we’ll ever get to see the pair actually go to war. We certainly live in hope. What’s for certain, however, is that we’ll have to wait a while longer if we are still to get that fight.

source: express.co.uk