ANTHONY JOSHUA could not see out of his right eye from the ninth round during his battering by Oleksandr Usyk.
The Londoner was stunned at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as his Ukrainian challenger secured an emphatic, comprehensive unanimous points win on Saturday night.
Joshua failed to make use of his 18lb weight advantage over former cruiserweight king Usyk, who landed a barrage of heavy southpaw shots throughout the bout.
By the 10th round of the thrilling contest, AJ had a visible black and swollen eye as Usyk took control of the bout.
The Ukrainian finished with a flourish in the final rounds to put the result beyond doubt and seal a the unanimous 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113 verdict was announced at White Hart Lane.
And AJ admitted after that he couldn’t see which was a new experience for him.
He said: “It was bad at one stage but it’s getting a lot better now.
“From the ninth I couldn’t see. I couldn’t see anything really.
“My eye was shut but it was a good experience because in adversity you’ve just got to learn to control yourself and stay on top of things.
“So when I couldn’t see anything…
“It’s the first time it’s happened in a fight so I was thinking ‘ok cool, this is the first time my eye has closed in a fight, I can’t see nothing, I’m looking out of one eye’.
“But it got better as the rounds went on, and we’ll be back.”
Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn also confirmed the Brit would go to hospital to check if his eye socket was fractured.
Hearn told BBC 5 Live: “He will go to hospital.
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“I don’t know if he has broken his eye socket, it doesn’t look great.”
Hearn added: “He said he couldn’t see after the ninth round, obviously he was getting tagged a lot as well.
“His power looked like it had left him, the tank was empty and it was only heart which kept him on his feet in the 12th round.”
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