Leading up to the fight, Joshua and his backers framed the event as a celebration — the first stadium show and most-attended boxing event in England since the coronavirus pandemic began. They also presented it as a sort of formality. Joshua faced Usyk only because the World Boxing Organization mandated the fight, and Joshua and his promoters at Matchroom Boxing spoke openly about matching with the winner between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder, who are scheduled to fight Oct. 9.
A heavyweight megafight would have made financial sense. Joshua attracts a massive audience. His Instagram account boasts 12.9 million followers, and his title-winning triumph over Vladimir Klitschko drew 90,000 spectators to London’s Wembley Stadium in April of 2017.
Instead, Usyk and Joshua provided another example of how quickly the heavyweight landscape can change.
In mid-May, Hearn and Fury each announced an agreement for a midsummer title unification bout between Fury and Joshua in Saudi Arabia. But days after that deal went public, an arbitrator in the United States ordered Fury to face Wilder, who had invoked his rematch clause after losing to Fury in February 2020, and had filed suit to enforce it.
That legal decision torpedoed Joshua-Fury, and led to Joshua’s bout with Usyk, which ended in an upset that will have promoters recalibrating plans.
Moments after the bout, Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, said the now former champion would likely exercise his contractual right to an immediate rematch.
“For me, he’ll go straight into the rematch,” Hearn said. “But he’ll have to bring something different.”