Anthony Joshua insisted he learned a ‘great lesson’ in his defeat to Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night and will bounce back.
Britain’s unified heavyweight champion was outboxed and dethroned by the Ukrainian, who put on a magnificent performance to make history at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Usyk’s speed, movement and accuracy troubled AJ all night long.
Joshua had moments of success throughout the fight, but could not maintain this for long enough to emerge victorious.
Usyk ultimately outclassed Joshua and had him out on his feet in the final round, with the bell saving AJ from being knocked out.
The scores were 117-112, 116-112, 115-113, crowning Usyk a two-division king of the world as the former cruiserweight champion took hold of the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles.
AJ reflected at his presser after the loss: “Well done to the winner.
“We’ll be back again, get back into training. Great 12 rounds, great experience in the ring. We progress from this point once again.
“We’ll be doing it all again soon.”
Responding to questions he added: “What went wrong? Just taking a loss, but we’ll get it right.
“From the ninth, I couldn’t see in the ninth round, couldn’t see anything really, my eye was shut.
“It was a good experience because in adversity you’ve just got to learn to control yourself, stay on top of things, so when I couldn’t see anything – it’s the first time that it’s happened in a fight.”
Asked if he wants the rematch next, AJ replied: “100 per cent, 110 per cent.
“I’m ready to get back to training. It was a good 12-rounder, so I’ll be in a good place when I get back into training to pick up where we left off.”
Regarding whether he was surprised how good Usyk was, AJ said: “With all due respect, not necessarily.
“He’s just a lot lighter so the pace, he’s got a good pace.
“But he still gets hit, he gets hit a lot and in the rematch we’ll just learn how to hit him more and be more concussive with our punch selection…
“I’m just looking to go in there improved, stronger, smarter and I believe I’ll get a good win in the next fight because of what I learned this fight.
“I’m a quick learner and we’ll bounce back.”
He added: “When I was walking back through the tunnel, I just said to myself, ‘I’m ready to get back to the gym, I’m ready to just put that work in’.
“I just want to get back to the gym, get back on the grind and improve, so when I fight these good guys and see that they are hurt I can capitalise on the opportunity.
“It was a great lesson today. I know we can look at it from a negative point of view but, for me, I’ve got to take it as a great lesson and build on that situation.
“I never tend to look at the opponent. I just tend to look at myself and realise where I went wrong. So it’s not so much what he done, it’s the opportunities that I gave him. It’s not so much him. I’m just going to go back and look at myself and correct my wrongs.
“I’m a different kind of animal. I’m not a sulker. This is a blessed opportunity, to be able to fight for the heavyweight title of the world, fight good fighters time and time again and for people to come out.
“I’m not going to be going home and be crying about it, because this is war. It’s a long process. This isn’t just one fight and then I’m done.
“I’m going back to look at way that I can improve. Straight away, I’ve already been watching the fight and thinking ‘I could’ve done that better’.”
On the collapsed undisputed fight with Fury, Joshua concluded: “I’ll fight Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder without the belts.
“The belts are fun, it’s great, it’s legacy, but with or without the belts, I’ll fight whoever.
“Would you still watch without the belts? Exactly.”
Joshua later posted a message on social media, thanking fans for their support and insisting he will be back.
He wrote: “Keep positive even if the world’s crumbling in front of you! London I love you & thank you each and every time!”
talkSPORT will have live and exclusive radio commentary of Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder 3 from Las Vegas on October 9.