Usyk fans, all honesty were you worried after the 9th?

This is a really good comeback because yeah, actually, he is.

 

It is bizarre, I am still trying to work out what GGG and Loma have done wrong aswell unfortunately I think skin tone has something to do with it. What else? Usyk especially, as you said, a humble, funny, laid back dude who never puts a foot wrong.

 

Yeah it was hard to tell how much or if he was in trouble for those few seconds in that round. Usyk does some quirky stuff that looks like he's in sorts but he's just bobbjng and weavjng and riding out the storm. It's hard to know how many punches actually landed on Usyk. AJ's body attack was far more worrying but he gave that up rather quickly.

 

Maybe a little, he didn't look super comfortable in the 9th. The fact that Joshua packs glass though made me feel that one flurry back from Usyk could always get him back on track. Usyk wasn't looking for the stoppage but always able to stop Joshuas momentum.

 

Ahhh... the myth of round nine.

Yes, it was a very good round for Joshua - he dominated it; boxed well. He buzzed Usyk, got him a little disorganised for a while. But Usyk was nowhere near getting stopped or even dropped and Joshua used up what little gas he had left in trying to chase a retreating Usyk round the ring like a puppy chasing a ping pong ball bouncing round a kitchen.

Overall that round took more from Joshua than Usyk, and that was evidenced in the next three rounds...

 

Usyk just wants to 'Make Heavyweight Great Again' mate ;-).

 

Can't work the body and stay out of range. I suspect he didn't like what he was getting back in return when he did get close enough to land downstairs (sometimes VERY downstairs)...

 

Its weird because I thought Usyk at the time was just taking the round off and setting himself up for the last 3.

I just thought he lured AJ into a false sense of security.

 

When you saw the slow motion replays at the end of round 9 there was very little clean that actually landed. AJ missing, hitting gloves and rushing Usyk towards the ropes. Usyk wasn’t in real trouble.

 

Honestly during the 9th I was more impressed that AJ was actually going for it and trying to manhandle and punch through Usyk, which he never did in the 1st bout, than thinking Usyk was really hurt at any point; he was still rolling annd weaving well and managed to clinch at the right times to break up the attacks.

This was confirmed in between rounds where the replays showed that - a bit like moments in the Breidis fight - that Usyk wasn't really that hurt or being closed to being stopped.

My biggest question after the round was "how much has AJ emptied his gastank and will Usyk come right back at him" which I mentioned in the RBR.

And amongst all the things Usyk does so well, I think the thing he does best is breaking the spirit of his opponent when they get a bit of success by upping the gears and fighting at a higher level that they can't cope with - and round 10 was a beautiful example of that.

 

Not really. Announcers on DAZN were making it out to be worse than what it actually was. Good round for AJ but I don't think Usyk was anywhere close to being finished in that round.