BREAKING Louis Gossett Jr., 1st Black man to win supporting actor Oscar, dies at 87
Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries 'Roots,' has died. He was 87.
Slumped helplessly on the ropes, Anthony Joshua greeted the final bell -- and what he knew was the end of his second reign as world heavyweight champion -- with a wry smile.
Oleksandr Usyk knew it, too, dropping to his knees and looking to the sky.
In just his third fight since stepping up from the cruiserweight division, Usyk delivered a clinic in movement and fast punching to claim a unanimous points win over Joshua in front of 66,267 stunned fans inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Saturday.
Usyk became the third man, after Evander Holyfield and David Haye, to win world titles at cruiserweight then heavyweight. Six years after Wladimir Klitschko's long heavyweight reign ended, Ukraine has another champion in boxing's marquee division.
"The fight went exactly as I expected it to go," Usyk said through a translator. "There were a couple of moments when Anthony pushed me hard but nothing special."
After the judges scored the fight 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113 in favor of the 34-year-old Usyk, Joshua -- sporting a closed right eye -- walked over to Usyk's corner and congratulated the Ukrainian's team.
Dominated by a smaller, lighter and much faster opponent, Joshua lost his WBA, WBO and IBF titles for a second time -- more than two years after a defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr. in New York that he immediately avenged in Saudi Arabia.
Joshua will have the chance to do the same thing -- there is a rematch clause in the deal with Usyk -- in a bid to keep alive his ultimate goal: To become undisputed champion. The British public, who have followed Joshua's journey from Olympic champion through to world champion, was hoping for an all-British fight against WBC champion Tyson Fury to unify the four belts.
That looks fanciful now, though. Usyk was comfortably the more assured fighter, his reflexes drawing gasps from the pro-Joshua crowd and his lightning-quick punch off his left hand repeatedly connecting.
Joshua just didn't see the punches coming, like in the third round when his head was rocked back by a straight left before the Briton wobbled after a left hook flush on the jaw.
Like in the ninth, when another left from Usyk caught Joshua, who nodded to the challenger as the bell went.
And especially in a sensational final round when the disparity between the fighters was at its biggest as Usyk unleashed a flurry of punches -- from his left and right -- that saw Joshua staggering backward onto the ropes. Indeed, he was saved by the bell.
Joshua couldn't see out of his right eye from the ninth round.
"I had no objective to knock him out because my corner pushed me not to do that," Usyk said. "At the start, I hit him and tried to knock him out but my trainer said, `Just stop and do your job."'
Usyk stepped up to heavyweight in 2019 after unifying all the cruiserweight belts, and now has 19 straight wins as a professional.
His energy levels were remarkable, as shown in the final round and then after the result was announced as Usyk -- an eccentric -- entertained the crowd with an acrobatic dance inside the ring.
Joshua fell to the second loss of his 25-fight pro career, this time to a man who followed him -- just a day later -- as Olympic champion at the London Games in 2012. His career is at a crossroads again.
"I'm not going to be going home tonight, crying about it," Joshua said. "Because this is war. I can't sulk. That is wasting time."
And there will be a rematch.
"Oh, 100% ... 110%," Joshua said.
Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn, said it will likely take place in February or March, and preferably in Britain.
Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries 'Roots,' has died. He was 87.
Warnings of up to 60 millimetres of rain and other alerts have been issued for seven Canadian provinces and one territory ahead of the Easter weekend.
Jameek Lowery was among more than 330 Black people who died after police stopped them with tactics that aren’t supposed to be deadly, like physical restraint and use of stun guns, The Associated Press found.
Luxury operator Regent Seven Seas Cruises is raising their price tag to eye-watering levels, with a suite on an upcoming 140-day world voyage costing US$1.7 million.
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
A Filipino villager has been nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a brutal Good Friday tradition he said he would devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea.
An Ontario man who built a garage on his property has been locked in a battle with his electricity provider for a year and half over a severed power line.
Millions of people in parts of Eastern and Atlantic Canada will be able to see the rare solar eclipse happening on April 8. But they should only look up if they have proper eye protection, experts say.
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.