'Just So Upset', Anthony Joshua Says About In-Ring Meltdown After Loss

The boxing world was blessed with another great fight in its long history this past weekend after Oleksandr Usyk defeated Anthony Joshua for a second time.

Usyk had to deal with Joshua's body blows for most of the fight, but he weathered a massive offensive storm from "AJ" in the ninth round.

After the fight, Joshua went on the mic to vent his frustrations after losing to Usyk and gave his props to the Ukrainian fighter-a moment that had fans flabbergasted.

Many saw Joshua's gesture as a complete meltdown from the former Olympic gold medalist, but he attributed it to him being just mad at himself.

"When you do things from your heart not everyone will understand, it was just from the heart. I was mad at myself, just myself, I wanted to get out of there because I was mad. Then I realized it was sport and I had to do the right thing," he said in the post-fight presser as quoted by Boxing Scene.

"The speech was about where I came from. I changed my life through boxing. But Usyk put on an incredible performance, and I want to thank him for taking part in an incredible fight. I am just so upset."

Joshua put up a much better performance against Usyk this time around by being more aggressive yet accurate with his shots and putting an emphasis on the body to slow "The Cat," something that former foe Dillian Whyte stressed heading into the fight.

However, Usyk was not ready to relinquish his titles just yet and was awarded the split decision victory with scores of 116-112 and 115-113 in his favor, with one judge having Joshua as the winner with a 115-113 scorecard.

Usyk had his moment in the in-ring post-fight interview by crediting Joshua's much-improved performance while also calling out Tyson Fury to acquire the lone heavyweight belt missing from his collection–the WBC heavyweight title.

"I'm sure that Tyson Fury is not retired yet. I'm sure, I'm convinced he wants to fight me. I want to fight him. If I'm not fighting Tyson Fury, I'm not fighting at all," said Usyk through an interpreter.

Fury's retirement was short-lived as he declared earlier in August that he was gunning for two trilogy fights–one with Deontay Wilder and another with Derek Chisora.

With Usyk setting his sights on a titanic clash with Fury, boxing fans have been theorizing that their former opponents should face one another to determine the true heavyweight title contender.

Seeing Wilder and Joshua share the ring together would be an easy-to-sell fight with the underlining storyline being a shot at redemption.

It remains to be seen whether the powers that be and their respective management groups will consider doing it.