ANTHONY JOSHUA was LEADING after eight rounds against Oleksandr Usyk before his nasty eye injury in the ninth sparked a meltdown.
That is according to the official scorecards which have been released by AJ’s Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn.
The Brit lost 115-113, 116-112, 117-112 at Tottenham’s stadium on Saturday night and the exact scoring has now emerged.
Howard Foster scored the bout 115-113 with the contest all square with two rounds to go.
Steve Weisfield gave Usyk an extra point on his 116-112 card and only had them level after the eighth.
And Viktor Fesechenko judged the Ukrainian to have won by the biggest margin – awarding him 117 points to Joshua’s 112.
But after eight rounds Foster had the fight for Joshua, Weisfield scored it a draw and Fesechenko was in favour of Usyk.
Foster had Joshua up 77-75 after the eighth, Weisfeld scored it level 76-76 and Fesechenko called it 77-76 to Usyk.
So at that stage, the Brit was ahead on the three judges’ total scoring by a single point – at 229 for Joshua, and 228 for Usyk.
However, if the last four rounds had been shared, it would have finished a draw.
But his right eye continued to swell and impede his vision – with AJ admitting after he could not see out of it from the ninth round.
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As a result, Usyk stormed the last rounds and walked away with a unanimous points win.
After the shock defeat, Hearn warned AJ he must trigger his Usyk rematch clause immediately or risk NEVER having the chance to win his belts back.
Fellow British heavyweight Dillian Whyte also hit out at AJ after the clash labelling the Londoner ‘gun-shy, negative and lacking ambition’.
The Body Snatcher told BBC 5 Live: “I said if Joshua tried to box he was always going to lose.
“If he had come out and bullied him and pushed the pace and let his hands go he could have knocked him out in the first even round.
“But he came out and was being too negative, he seemed like a gun-shy fighter. You are the bigger man, have a go.
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“I don’t know, he lacked ambition in the ring there tonight.
“The first round, Usyk landed the first strong blow and Joshua was a negative fighter.
“He got tagged with a left and he was worried the whole time.”
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Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
