[2] On 25 September 2021 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England, Anthony Joshua first faced Oleksandr Usyk, his WBO mandatory challenger, in a defence of his unified world heavyweight titles.

Despite entering the bout as the reigning champion and the pre-fight betting favourite,[3] Joshua was outboxed over the twelve-round distance as he suffered the second defeat of his professional career, losing via unanimous decision with judges' scorecards of 117–112, 116–112 and 115–113 all in Usyk's favour.

The result meant that Usyk became only the second boxer ever, after Evander Holyfield, to win unified world titles in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions.

Krassyuk noted that Usyk relished the prospect of squaring off against Joshua twice: "So I remember when we discussed with Oleksandr the issue of rematch, he was delighted and said 'Wow, cool, I will beat Anthony [sic] twice.

[6] On 2 March, Usyk confirmed in a video interview with American news network CNN that he had taken up arms and joined a territorial defence battalion in Ukraine.

[10] On 19 June 2022, it was officially announced that Usyk would be facing Joshua in a rematch in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on 20 August.

[citation needed] According to New York Times statistics, Joshua landed 37 body punches compared to 15 in their first fight.