Rico Verhoeven Shocked The World

The entire fight was a spectacle to watch. Rico Verhoeven surprised a lot of people by fighting strongly in the first round, hunched over with quick feet and active feints. He competed with Usyk in the lead hand battle and didn't let Usyk establish any sense of rhythm with his jab. What was even more surprising was that Verhoeven performed well in the second round too, and followed it up with another strong third round.

In the fourth round, momentum changed. I thought, and I'm sure a lot of others thought, this was the big turning point in the fight. Usyk pressed forward with combinations, landing clean uppercuts which hurt Verhoeven and made him drop his mouthpiece. Usyk was doing what he does best: downloading data and gradually turning up the pressure.

Now reading everything so far, would you expect me to say that between rounds five to nine, I gave Usyk just one of those rounds? Verhoeven, who looked revitalised after a difficult fourth round, started to comfortably outbox Usyk both at range and up close. The +800 underdog was giving Usyk serious problems for large stretches of rounds six through nine. He never slowed down. I found it mesmerising. This man is used to fighting 5x3s in Kickboxing, and now he’s outworking the workhorse.

I’ve watched Usyk take out legend after legend, beating Murat Gassiev and Mairis Briedis to conquer the Cruiserweight division, stopping Daniel Dubois twice, ending the undefeated reign of Tyson Fury, battering Anthony Joshua in the 12th round in their fight at Tottenham. And Rico Verhoeven was outboxing him. Ridiculous.

The Fight Started To Flip

The tenth round was a turning point in the fight, a much better one for Oleksandr Usyk. For me though, I felt it was far too little, too late. There was a serious argument that Usyk was down 8-2 (98-92 on the scorecards) going into the Championship rounds of the fight. I genuinely thought Verhoeven could afford to lose a 10-8 round and still edge the fight on the cards. Very naive.

Then the eleventh round happened. At this point in the fight, I had it scored 7-3 (97-93) for Rico Verhoeven, with Usyk honestly taking just two clear rounds. The eleventh was competitive before the big shot landed. In the closing seconds, Usyk dropped Verhoeven with a perfectly timed uppercut. Quite impressively, Rico returned to his feet and looked fine to continue. Usyk swarmed with a late flurry, and then the bell rang. A tough moment for Rico, who would certainly need to survive a difficult twelfth... what? The fight's over?

The bell had already sounded, yet Mark Lyson stepped in moments later to wave the fight off after Usyk missed his final punch. Oleksandr Usyk, and still.

Boxing, Consistency, and the Scorecards

The problem I find with boxing is that there's no consistency with these kinds of stoppages. Just a few weeks ago I watched Fabio Wardley get mauled before he was brutally TKO'd in the eleventh round. I watched him struggle to stand on his feet before the tenth round started, and yet there was no stoppage. Two years ago I watched Tyson Fury nearly go unconscious on his feet when Oleksandr Usyk rocked him in the ninth round of their first fight, and again there was no stoppage. Two hours ago I watched Rico Verhoeven climb off the canvas in a fight where he hadn't previously been hurt, and it was stopped. Where is the consistency? But don’t get me confused, I absolutely think Wardley should have been pulled out earlier in that fight. There’s a fine line between stopping a fight too early and stopping it too late, and boxing referees seem to lose balance on that tightrope constantly.

I'd be remiss not to mention the scorecards. Judge Manuel Oliver Palomo had it a draw. Judge Fabian Guggenheim also scored it a draw. Judge Pasquale Procopio had it 96-94 (6-4) in favour of Rico Verhoeven. I'm honestly not sure what surprised me more, the stoppage or those scorecards. I understand boxing is a difficult sport to judge, and in no way am I insinuating I could do a better job than three qualified judges, but the general consensus online appeared to be that Verhoeven was ahead by at least a few rounds. For two judges not to have split the rounds more evenly through ten rounds shocked me badly.

It is a shame about the stoppage, and I think the scorecards are disappointing as well. But Rico Verhoeven being in that ring tonight was anything but a shame. This fight evolved from a novelty spectacle into a legitimate Heavyweight Championship-level contest. The King of Kickboxing showed up and delivered against the consensus greatest Heavyweight boxer in the world right now. Huge respect to Rico Verhoeven. Of course, respect to Usyk as well, who still has plenty of options for his next fight. You can hate the stoppage as much as you want, and I certainly do, but you can’t hate Usyk. That man has always been, and will continue to be, one of the classiest figures in boxing.