Oleksandr Usyk has come out in defence of Anthony Joshua, when asked about the British heavyweight's antics in the ring following Usyk's victory over him.
After Usyk's split decision win, Joshua took the microphone before proceeding into a tearful speech, while he also took the Ukrainian's belts and held them up in the air.
"I cannot say his behaviour was a disgrace, it was just emotional," said Usyk. "I don't think he wanted to offend me."
I think he was just overwhelmed, it was too much to take, and he just started ranting. But I don't have any rancour towards him and I want to tell people that they shouldn't hold it against him - he didn't do anything bad.
"Emotions took over him and he just spurted those words, but later he told me it was OK. Don't judge him for that. Instead, he needs support and reassurance. He was simply asking how he, the strong guy, could have lost to me, the weak one.
"I wanted to talk to him, I said, 'ease up, man, let's just calm down, when I have time I could come to see you in the UK, come to your gym and we could spar together and stuff'."
Anthony Joshua Back To Work After Usyk Loss
Note to self : I got to work harder pic.twitter.com/etUMTPvsp3
— Anthony Joshua (@anthonyjoshua) September 2, 2022
READ HERE: Anthony Joshua In Tears After Tossing Belts And Making Speech After Defeat
The heavyweight division is in a rather interesting situation at the moment, with four main contenders in Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, and Deontay Wilder.
However, their respective camps have been notoriously slow at making match-ups happen, and it is unclear which two will fight each other next, or, particularly with Tyson Fury out of action, if there will even be any more bouts between these four fighters.
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