Rico Verhoeven is at least considering an appeal of yesterday’s controversial TKO loss to Oleksandr Usyk, telling Boxing News that after reviewing footage, he believes referee Mark Lyson stopped the fight after the bell to end the 11th round.
If you look at the video, he’s got a good argument.
“I just saw the end, because of all the comments I was reading. They stopped the fight after the bell. So the bell went, then they stopped the fight. I think we might just go and appeal it … That’s something
[the referee] should be aware of. Of course, mistakes can be made, but looking back at it, the referee needs to admit his mistake. It’s either a no contest or we go to the scorecards, and if we do that, I was ahead.”
Verhoeven’s assessment of the score card situation is a bit flawed, to clear that up somewhat. Verhoeven did lead on one card, with two even, after 10 rounds. That would be a majority draw, not “Verhoeven ahead.” But all three judges would have scored the 11th round 10-8 for Usyk thanks to a knockdown, which would have left one card even and two with Usyk holding the edge, had the 11th round been scored. And that would have been a majority win on the cards for Usyk.
Realistically, as trainer Peter Fury said, we’ll just never really know what the 12th round might have brought. Most figure that Usyk, with big momentum and Rico sincerely hurt, would have gotten the stoppage or at least sealed a narrow points win.
