The judge who awarded Anthony Joshua victory over Oleksandr Usyk last night is standing by his scoring of the fight.
Joshua and Usyk met for the second time last night in Saudi Arabia with Usyk given the nod in another superb victory over his British challenger. Despite Joshua showing significant improvement from the opening fight, Usyk was widely regarded as the far superior fighter on the night and was judged to be ahead on two of the scorecards at 115-113 and his favour 116-112.
However third judge Glenn Feldman almost inexplicably had Joshua ahead on his scorecard, and even showed the Briton to be ahead by five rounds to one at the halfway point. Many have criticised Feldman's card in the aftermath of the event which threatened to take away the deserved victory from Usyk who prevailed by a split decision.
Feldman was confronted by iD Boxing after the fight who questioned his reasoning for the scorecard to which the judge replied: "Just the way I did. I can't explain you would have to talk to my supervisor." He was quickly cut off by his supervisor who tried to explain the judges decision.
"I saw it as a very close fight and you have to understand boxing is scored round-by-round and they were razor close and it depends on your perspective," he said. "I think a close fight and they scored it as they saw it. I think it was smart of Anthony to come out and try to rough up Usyk. I think there was good training and a good strategy and Usyk was able to have a little more energy in the final three rounds.
"Round by round I think it was very close, I think if you look at the punch stats after the fight you will see that. I was happy with how all three judges scored the fight I think it was a close fight and it is a type of fight is just based on which side of the ring you sit at and that is why we have them in different positions. I don't think anyone can say it was an overwhelming victory."
Joshua lost by unanimous decision last September and made a series of tweaks to try and overturn the loss but remained unable to win the fight over the distance. His biggest opening came in round nine when a barrage of body work saw Usyk backing off but he responded superbly in the round following Joshua's success.
Usyk won comfortably in the end and he will now look to continue his remarkable journey at heavyweight with a potential undisputed title clash against Tyson Fury. Fury quickly issued his response to the fight and confirmed that he would be open to ending his short retirement to step in the ring with the Ukrainian.
