To boxing, and Ukraine's Alexander Uyssik has become the undisputed world boxing heavyweight champion after beating Britain's Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia. Both boxers entered the ring holding versions of the world title, and both had unbeat professional records. There was little to choose between the two during the first half of the 12-round fight, but Fury's apparent plan of using his bigger size and reach seemed to be keeping his opponent where he wanted him. But that all changed in round nine, when Uyssik caught Fury with a series of blows, sending him staggering from side to side across the ring. Fury didn't go down, but the referee stepped in with a standing count. After that, while Fury managed to avoid taking too much further damage, he was unable to inflict much himself. The fight went the full distance, and Ousik was awarded a split decision, two to one by the judges. It makes him the first man to hold all of the major heavyweight titles, making him what's known as a unified champion for a quarter of a century. Let's hear from the champion and the man he beat.

My focus was only this fight. Now, I'm happy. I want to back Home, go to my church, pray. I want to say, Jesus, thank you. Because for me and my country, it's a big opportunity.

It was a close fight. I believed, I thought I did enough, but I'm not a judge. I can't judge a fight while I'm boxing it. If they were to have said to me in the last round or whatever, you're down, go out and try and finish him, I would have done that. But everyone in the corner believe we were up. All I had to do was just keep boxing and doing what I was doing. I thought he was getting it, but it was what it was. I'm not going to cry about spilled milk. I've had plenty of victories and I've gave God the glory. I've had this one loss in a close fight with a good man like Usik, and it was what it was.

Our correspondent, Adé Adé-Doyen, was in Riyadh and sent this update on the fight.

So what a night and what a performance. A terrific content success with momentum shift in one way, then the other. It started off as a cat and mouse affair, both men struggling to figure each other out. Führer had early success. It looked like he was squeezing to victory, and then Usik rallied and had his man hurt, had him out on his feet in the ninth round. Führer showed amazing powers recovery to come out in the following round, but it was Usik all the way from there. He delivered on his promise to prove that he is the greatest fighter of this era. There is a rematch clause in the contract, so there's every chance he'll do this again later this year. But as for Ousik, he joins a very, very exclusive club. Only one man, Evander Holyfield, has ever unified the titles in the Cruiserweight division and the Heavyweight division. That was a performance by Alexander Ousik that would cement his place as one of the greatest of all times.

Freelance boxing journalist Yusuf Anani gave us his assessment of the result.

It was Definitely the right result. It was pretty clear to Ussik. Strangely enough, even though he was by far the smallest man, he was the one doing most of the damage. There was a period in the fight where Fury was controlling it, and he was certainly hurting Usik in that period. He seemed to have figured him out, and he was almost celebrating already. But then suddenly, Usik didn't give up. And even though he's like David to Goliath, he came back in that ninth round and turned it around, and Fury couldn't really react. He survived. He showed incredible powers of recovery and bravery, but he couldn't claw back the points. So the smaller man was the harder puncher and the more powerful man.