Anthony Joshua stood in his corner, his back to the ring, resting his head across his forearms. If the great artist Auguste Rodin had wanted to sculpt a figure and call it "The Colossus in Defeat," this was the pose.
It was near midnight, British time, in Tottenham Stadium, September 25, 2021, a bit less than eight years to the day of Joshua's professional boxing debut, when he'd come from the Olympics with a gold medal and an aura of burgeoning greatness. He'd need less than a round to beat a fellow named Emanuel Leo that day at the 02 Arena. In more recent times he has looked anything but great. He's just one of many reasonably talented heavyweights at work today, albeit a rich and photogenic one.
There's no reason to feel badly about Joshua's recent loss. He has earned millions in his career. It just so happens that a quicker, more determined challenger, the Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, beat the wealthy champion for 12 rounds and took his title. That's boxing. However...
We're less surprised than we might've been. Joshua was most everyone's pick to defeat Usyk. He was a genuine heavyweight giant, while Usyk was a beefed up former cruiserweight who had looked lackluster in recent bouts. Yet the loss wasn't an earth shattering upset, not comparable to when Joshua was knocked out by Andy Ruiz two years ago in New York. This time there was only a sense that our doubts about Joshua are fully realized, and shame on anyone who buys into the hype again.
Joshua has been uneven since winning the championship from Wladimir Klitschko in 2017, a rousing bout where he showed impressive grit and courage. Since then, as if reaching the top of the business had worn him out, he has proven to be unreliable, a sort of majestic racehorse that won't run. Not even promoter Eddie Hearn, Joshua's chief supporter, could put a shiny spin on his losing effort against Usyk. "I don't think it was a great performance from AJ," Hearn said. "He looked tired as the fight went on."
Joshua was a gentleman in defeat, saying only that he'd lost to the better man. Despite a rematch clause, there were no loud promises to return and get his title back. He, too, seems weary of his own hype.
"I think the rematch is very tough," said Hearn, "but there's absolutely nowhere to hide."
Indeed, Joshua is far too comfortable and famous to fight his way back the old-fashioned way. He also looks less like a great fighter every time he steps into a ring. Usyk beat him by official scores of 117–112, 116–112 and 115–113, while many observers thought the difference was wider than indicated by the ringside judges. Joshua had a few moments of good offense in the sixth round, and was intermittently effective with body shots, but throughout the fight he seemed confused by Usyk's movement, unable to adapt. He was nearly out on his feet in the twelfth, offering only slap-punches while southpaw Usyk popped him at will with straight lefts.
Armchair viewers weighed in with their thoughts after the bout. Most zeroed in on Joshua's lack of focus, how he appears to have something wrong mentally. Others wonder if he has become too much of a boxer, forsaking the punching power of his earlier days. There's some truth in all of this, but the overriding knock on Joshua is that he is a typical young athlete of the era, built on a scale worthy of Mount Olympus but too pampered to maintain the requisite hunger of a champion.
Who knows if Usyk will suffer the same consequences. He's scrappy, with a sense of humor, a nice change from the occasionally dour Joshua. There are those who say other heavyweights are better, but the one Usyk whipped on September 25 was the one recognized as the champion of the world by four different sanctioning bodies.
The pattern of the fight was discernible from the opening round. Joshua moved about on stiff legs, hesitant to throw his right hand. Usyk, realizing early that he was more nimble than Joshua, chipped away at him with rights. The event wasn't entirely one-sided; Usyk's face was bruised after the bout, proof that championships don't change hands easily. The only real drama, though, was realizing that the Ukrainian underdog was pulling off an upset.
Joshua's chin, questionable even in some of his best outings, held up this time. Yet he spent the final moments of his second championship reign against the ropes, on the verge of falling out of the ring. The final bell saved him.
There was a time in the distant past when a new heavyweight champion was major news. The imagery that reporters used in those days, that a new champion was "crowned," while the old was "dethroned," evoked a sense of historical significance, as if they were chronicling the downfall of a king. With Joshua's loss, there's no sense of a king having fallen. He's just another athlete with more money than he'll ever need. Among his many endorsement deals, Joshua recently signed a three-year contract with a hemp supplier. As the "ambassador" for the Love Hemp Group, he's decidedly less than kingly. Long live the king of hemp.
What Joshua has going for him is British fandom. The Brits are forever loyal to their fighters, and lesser boxers than Joshua maintained strong followings even after some dreadful defeats. There were 70,000 customers in Tottenham. The British will likely buy into their man again. "Keep positive," Joshua said on social media after the bout, "even if the world’s crumbling in front of you!"
It was a nice sentiment, but one wonders if sentiment is all Joshua has left.
- Don Stradley
