STEVE’S SOAPBOX
in Egypt, it meant the open scorecard system would be in place. In a fight that was stunning in how it played out, Verhoeven was not only competitive versus Usyk in the eyes of many; he was actually winning the fight. Mike Coppinger on the DAZN broadcast had him up nine rounds to one going into the 10th. The consensus was that Verhoeven had won around six or seven frames by that juncture, but it felt like a huge upset was brewing. “I was winning. History was being made. I was so close to making the biggest upset – at least in combat sports – history,” Verhoeven said during an appearance on The 3 Knockdown Rule podcast a week after his fight. But in reality, he was not. Going into Round 9, the fight was even at 76-76 on the cards of Fabian Guggenheim, Manuel Oliver Palomo and Pasquale Procopio. After the 10th, Guggenheim and Palomo had it deadlocked at 95, while Procopio had Verhoeven up 96-94. So with this knowledge, Verhoeven had to keep fighting, because there was no lead to protect. He was asked if he liked having open scorecards. “Yeah … it’s hard to say, because as I think about it, I can say yes because I can change my tactics, my game plan,” he told Mario Lopez and I (cohosts of the podcast). “If I say no, then in the 11th round I probably wouldn’t have ran into that uppercut, because I kept on pushing. Because all the people back home, they were looking at the fight and they were like, ‘Why does he keep pushing like that? He’s so far ahead.’ But the reality was that I was not. We were leveled.” Chances are that if he didn’t know the scores, he might have employed a more defensive approach in the championship rounds. And if that sounds like a contradiction to my earlier position on Too Sharp, let’s be clear about this: There’s a difference between thinking you know the score and KNOWING the score. As a result, Usyk was finally able to hurt and then finish Verhoeven with a late barrage in the 11th round. “That’s why I walked into that
Rico Verhoeven says open scoring impacted his game plan vs. Usyk.
uppercut, because I was pushing it. Because if I wouldn’t be pushing it, I wouldn’t be walking into it,” continued the good-natured Verhoeven. “I’d just be boxing and walking around, because I was miles ahead.” But that begs the question: Was Verhoeven actually better off knowing the score, regardless of how things turned out? The flip side is that if the scores weren’t known and he believed he truly was “miles ahead” – but in reality wasn’t – and then employed a strategy to protect a lead that he really didn’t have, then loses a decision, well, now you have not only an angry boxer, but disgruntled fans. Perhaps the bigger issue here were the actual scores turned in by the trio of Guggenheim, Palomo and Procopio. They really were in the minority in their belief that the sluggish Usyk wasn’t behind in this bout. In the case of Johnson-Sor Vorapin, the fans lost because the entertainment value of this fight was sucked out of it. With Usyk-Verhoeven, you have a case where the challenger lost, but the fans won because of the dramatic nature of how this played out. I don’t know, I may have to rethink this whole thing all over – again. BAD STOPPAGE? In addition to the scores at the time of the stoppage, there was much debate over the call by referee Mark Lyson, who waved off the fight at the end of the 11th
round. But it really wasn’t until the bell had sounded to end the round that this decision was made. Some would argue that Lyson was in the process of halting the action but was unable to get in- between the two heavyweights. Others would argue that based on what had taken place prior to the knockdown, Verhoeven had earned the right to see Round 12. In the aftermath of this fight, Verhoeven said he was filing a protest. But he understands that the result is the result. “I’m not going to get a different result, ever,” he stated. “The only thing I’m looking for is an apology, because if we look at it, a mistake was made. We’re all humans. We can all make mistakes. It’s fine. But was this mistake made at a very bad and hurtful moment? A hundred percent. Because we were so close to writing boxing history.” As for what’s next, Verhoeven certainly welcomes another crack at Usyk, but he says offers are coming in “from all across the world.” He says he is conferring with Turki Alalshikh in regard to his future. “We’re just looking at all the options.” [Editor’s note: Verhoeven’s protest was dismissed.]
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