Joshua Describes His Most Heartbreaking Defeat

Former heavyweight world champion, Anthony Joshua, acknowledged that his defeat in the rematch against Oleksandr Usyk was the most heartbreaking of his career.

Joshua confessed he hadn't anticipated a second loss to the Ukrainian. "Usyk 2. Yeah, massively. It was excruciating. I respect Usyk, yeah? But it just hurt, the defeat."

"It was weak. It was a weak performance by me. I wasn’t supposed to lose, in my head. It just... I give my life to this game, man. I give everything, I swear to you. I give a lot. Even talking about it now, it just makes me feel like... choked up a bit."

"When you put everything into something, it’s not easy... The only thing we get credit for is winning, there’s no silver medal in boxing. And what I gave wasn’t enough," Joshua told the Independent.

For context, Joshua has faced three defeats in his career: an early one against Andy Ruiz and two against Usyk, both of which were decided on points, with one being a unanimous decision and the other a split decision by the judges.