Oleksandr Usyk successfully defended his heavyweight titles at the first time of asking as he outboxed Anthony Joshua once again after doing so last year in their first meeting.

The Ukrainian dominated large parts of the fight, and despite his best efforts, Anthony Joshua couldn’t really impose himself to make his size and weight advantage tell, nor could he land a knockout blow many felt he needed if he was to win against Usyk.

There’s no denying the contest was much closer than the original bout, but a unanimous decision victory for Usyk felt like the most reflective result, however, not according to the judges as they handed a split decision victory to the Ukrainian.

He won’t care about the actual verdict, all he cares about he has kept his titles and given his home country a night to remember as they are suffering right now in the war with Russia. His victory will no doubt have been a nice distraction from the abominable scenes in Ukraine.

On top of the belts he retained, Usyk added the Ring Magazine belt to his collection as that was added to the fight after Tyson Fury vacated it as his claims on retirement seemed firmer than ever.

However, after watching the fight, Fury immediately called them both out saying how bad the fight was and it would be a breeze for him, but with a few more expletives in there from the Gypsy King as you could imagine! “Get your cheque book out because the Gypsy King is here to stay, forever!”

Despite vacating one of his titles, Fury still holds the WBC heavyweight belt and had a deadline to vacate that, however, his post-fight comments on social media lean us back in the direction that he will step foot in the ring again to give us an undisputed heavyweight clash with Usyk.

Getting both fighters to agree shouldn’t be an issue as Usyk was quick to call Fury out after his victory in Saudi Arabia. When asked about the future and Fury in the ring, he said: “I’m sure that Tyson Fury is not retired yet. I’m sure, I’m convinced he wants to fight me. I want to fight him and if I’m not fighting Tyson Fury, I’m not fighting at all.”

After a 20 year wait, we could finally see an undisputed heavyweight champion once again. There’s no trilogy fights to be legally triggered this time, all that stands in our way is Tyson Fury’s umpteenth ‘retirement.’