ANTHONY JOSHUA suffered another defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.
The Brit, 32, was outboxed by the magical Ukrainian as Usyk claimed a split decision victory – 113-115, 115-113 and 116-112.
And it was the champion's remarkable final three rounds which saw him clinch the win.
After a breathtaking ninth round saw Joshua rock Usyk and land 28 punches to the Ukrainian's nine, the former undisputed cruiserweight champion came out for the 10th and dismantled all hope of a British victory.
Usyk landed 39 punches in the 10th round – the highest number any fighter has ever landed on Joshua over three minutes.
And he then went on to land a further 23 in the 11th and 17 in the final round.
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That totals 79 punches landed in the final three rounds – a spell which ultimately took the fight away from Joshua – with AJ landing just 29 over the same period.
In terms of individual rounds, Usyk outlanded Joshua in nine of the 12.
AJ managed to land more punches in the first two rounds – but his only victory after that came in the ninth when his onslaught fell short of securing a stoppage win.
Usyk ended with a total punches landed of 170 compared with Joshua's 124.
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But Joshua actually did have a marginally higher percentage of punches landed – 25 per cent to Usyk's 24.
However, it was ultimately futile as Usyk had his hand raised despite the judges scorecards being closer than many expected.
And the beating Usyk inflicted on Joshua in the final nine minutes will go down in history as one of the great heavyweight performances in the key, championship rounds.
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