The official scorecards from last night's fight between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk have been revealed, with the former on course for victory until the ninth round.
Judges Howard Foster, Steve Weisfield and Viktor Fesechenko considered the bout to be close up until that point, with the momentum swinging in the Ukrainian's favour in the final three rounds.
Advert
This is believed to be the moment that Joshua suffered a significant injury to his eye socket, with his promoter Eddie Hearn claiming the 31 year old may have broken it.
"(Joshua) never really got going," Hearn said after the fight, as quoted by Metro. "He will go to hospital now. I don't know if he has broken his eye socket. It doesn't look great."
Hearn's client was beaten comprehensively in the end by Usyk in front of a 65,000 strong crowd at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Advert
However, as the scorecards suggest, it was a tight affair for the most part, with Joshua claiming the fight toughened once his vision began to blur.
"It was bad at one stage but it's getting a lot better now," he admitted after the fight, as quoted by Daily Star. "From the ninth I couldn't see. I couldn't see anything really.
"My eye was shut but it was a good experience because in adversity you've just got to learn to control yourself and stay on top of things.
Advert
"It's the first time it's happened in a fight so I was thinking 'ok cool, this is the first time my eye has closed in a fight, I can't see nothing, I'm looking out of one eye'.
"But it got better as the rounds went on, and we'll be back."
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Anthony Joshua, Oleksandr Usyk, Eddie Hearn
