What happened in the first Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua fight?

The Jeddah Superdome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia will be the site for the rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua for the unified heavyweight championship. The fight will be held Saturday, August 20 with the card starting at around noon ET and the main event expected to start after 5 p.m. ET. The broadcast will be handled by DAZN.

Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs), a former cruiserweight champion, won the WBA, IBF, IBO and WBO heavyweight titles from Joshua in their first fight last September. Despite Joshua holding a 20-pound weight advantage, it was Usyk’s ability to move and connect. Usyk showed his power in Round 3 when he landed a combination that snapped Joshua’s head back and added a nasty straight left that sent Joshua buckling into the ropes.

The challenger carried that momentum into Round 6 when Joshua finally landed his first good punch of the fight — a straight right that sent Usyk backward. Usyk, however, survived the round and began to take control of the fight in the championship rounds. He closed the show with a great performance in Round 12 that almost sent Joshua to the canvas.

When the scorecards came in it was 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113 for the winner and new unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.

Now Usyk will try to match that performance in a mandatory rematch. He is the betting favorite at -205 on DraftKings Sportsbook. Joshua is betting at +160 in his attempt to be the three-time heavyweight champion.