Rico Verhoeven puzzled by stoppage, 'fishy' scoring in Oleksandr Usyk loss
· Yahoo Sports
Rico Verhoeven is just as surprised as the combat sports community with what transpired in his highly controversial fight against boxing great Oleksandr Usyk.
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Verhoeven, a former Glory Kickboxing champion, fought Usyk in yet another crossover superfight that pitted a world-class boxer against a fighter from another discipline. This type of fight, more famously coined by Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather, has been happening for some time, with the boxer unsurprisingly beating the outsider most of the time. However, although Usyk came out with his hand raised, there were plenty of eyebrows raised about how it all came about.
For starters, the referee intervened to stop the fight after the closing bell of Round 11 had rung with Verhoeven, who, according to many, was up on the scorecards. Verhoeven, who was knocked down seconds prior to the stoppage, was standing with a high guard, defending himself from Usyk.
Like many, Verhoeven was puzzled by the referee's decision to stop the fight.
"For people who watch my fights, I've been dropped multiple times in different types of fights, in championship fights, and what do I do? I get back up, and no matter how much time is left on the clock, I get back up, and I end up winning," Verhoeven said on "The Ariel Helwani Show." "That was the mindset. ... I got back up, I put the mouthpiece back on, but I heard (the 10-second clapper), so I went, 'Oh, that's good. There are only 10 seconds left. Let me keep my hands up, and let me get to the 12th round.' I knew he was coming straight at me. I was (defending), I believe I gave him a right hook, but I was like, 'Hmm, that's not smart.' I kept my hands up and waited till the bell went. I'm thinking, 'When is the bell going to go? When is the referee going to stop this? Those 10 seconds are taking long right now.' Then he jumped in, and I was like, 'Ok, the round is over,' and he was like, 'It's over. It's over.' I was like, 'What do you mean it's over?' 'No, it's over.' (I go), 'But why?' I was like, 'What the heck is going on here?' For me, it was a surprise. Then afterward, we heard the bell already rang before he jumped in. So, yeah."
By boxing standards, it was a premature stoppage from the referee. Verhoeven had only been dropped that one time in the fight, which came with 20 seconds remaining in Round 11. He was able to answer the 10 count without much issue, and was defending himself in the final seconds to see a Round 12.
There was a second wave of controversy from the fight. The official scoring of the fight was revealed, and it had Verhoeven and Usyk tied up on two judges' scorecards and Verhoeven winning on the third. If Verhoeven had seen out Round 11, the round would've been scored a 10-8 in favor of the Ukrainian, putting Verhoeven down two points on two cards and one on another. Verhoeven would've needed a knockdown to draw the fight or a KO to win it. Many, including the DAZN commentators, thought Verhoeven was comfortably winning the fight until that point.
"There were open scorecards, and after four rounds, we're like, 'Hey, we're even.' I felt like I was at least 3-1, but OK, that's fine," Verhoeven said. "Then we get the scorecards again after another four rounds, so after Round 8, and still we were even. Hmm, I don't know. It's starting to feel fishy. I feel like I'm winning these rounds. I'm working more. I'm getting hit less, and I'm touching him more than he's hitting me, so maybe I have to push it a little bit more. It's getting looked at through a protective boxing lens. Maybe because I am an outsider, maybe I have to put in that extra work to be even more convincing. Like we saw in the commentary stats, at Round 10, I was like 8-2 instead of going up equal."
Verhoeven revealed after the fight that he was going to appeal the loss to Usyk. He isn't necessarily looking to overturn the result, but he'd like some acknowledgment that he was wronged.
"What do you want with the appeal? Actually, to be honest, all I'm looking for is an apology," Verhoeven explained. "Like, 'Yo, Rico. We're sorry. This should've gone differently,' and that's it. What else can I ask for? Like I said, I'm super thankful that I got the opportunity, that the WBC sanctioned it, and I was there, and I showcased that these crossover fights are definitely something that needs to happen more in the future. It started, of course, with the Mayweather-McGregor fight. Then we had the Ngannou-Fury fight. We had the Jake-Tyson fight, and now we had the Rico-Usyk fight. I think if you look at it, it brings so many eyeballs to combat sports in general and all landscape changes, and there's so much interest from different types of companies and brands. I love it. I love it. I love seeing everything that's going on right now."
Fans will have to wait until the appeal gets a verdict, but they rarely go through and end up changing the original results. Although Verhoeven might not seem set on getting a different result, he would like to run things back with Usyk.
"Let's go for the rematch," Verhoeven said. "I'm excited about that. It's going to get even more eyeballs than we did the first time."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Rico Verhoeven aims for apology with Oleksandr Usyk appeal