Worst Stoppage in Boxing? Why Rico was ROBBED by Ref and Judges (Oleksandr Usyk vs Rico Verhoeven)

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]This is such a controversial boxing match where the scorecards are weird, the stoppage was weird. This has been a long-standing issue with the sport of boxing. It happens way too often where the referee messes up. The scoring is just mind-boggling. We're wondering if they're watching the same fight as us.

[00:00:16]And Rico got a double whammy of this. He got a bad referee and bad judges for a second professional fight this happened to him. It's also strange how this happened to him against Alexander Usyk.

[00:00:29]the referee and the judges. Everything was so weird about the fight, but the fight itself, it was actually amazing to watch. The skill from both these guys was amazing. And we underestimated Rico Verhovven. He was a kickboxing legend, one of the all-time greats at heavyweight with only one professional boxing fight though. Crossing over to a different sport to face the best heavyweight of our era. Coming off some of the biggest wins of his career, Alexander Usyk, who is the lineal heavyweight champion, was the lineal cruiserweight champion, Olympic gold medalist, undefeated professionally.

[00:01:02]This is his world. And it seemed like Rico didn't stand a chance. And he was giving Usyk everything that he can handle up until the knockdown at the end of the 11th round. Mind you as well, Rico's never fought more than 15 minutes. He was completely out of his realm and arguably beating Alexander Usyk. That is so surprising. It's not like Usyk is a bad boxer. Usyk is one of the most technical heavyweights we've ever seen. For Rico to be outskilling him round after round was very, very interesting to watch. His pressure and the way he was just aggressively putting his head into Usyk's chest, constantly fainting, and getting him to miss so many counter shots was better than I've ever seen anyone perform against Usyk before. This is the first time I was quite confident that Usyk was losing a fight going into the late rounds. But the judges didn't have it that way. So Rico's very upset with the way this fight went down. So much so that he wants to appeal this to the commission.

[00:02:00]That's probably not going to work. They don't like to overturn fights, but he feels like he was wronged just like most of the fans do. But they robbed him.

[00:02:07]They robbed him of an historic moment.

[00:02:09]If he won against Usyk, he's like top five ever, top three maybe. Like, who's able to do that? Who's able to become a glory kickboxing world champion and then transition to boxing with only one pro fight and win the heavyweight title there, too? It's very special that he almost pulled this off and honestly could have if he got a fair shot or Usyk would have knocked him out in the 12th regardless. Who knows? And that's the problem. We don't know because the referee did not give Rico a fair shot.

[00:02:37]So, let's talk about that. The referee messed up and so did the judges with their scorecards. I was shocked to see how they were scoring the fight after it was over. They were scoring the fight in a way that no matter what, Rico was messed over. It was a tie going into the 11th round, he gets unfairly stopped by this horrible referee. He stood no chance against the referee and judges.

[00:03:00]He was doing well against Usyk, but he couldn't beat the ref and judges. But the difference of this fight was that Rico Verhovven was supposed to be up on the scorecards. At least most people thought so. Not only the fans, but even on the unofficial scorecard. But in boxing, they are notorious for very bad judges. They give the first two rounds to Rico. Three, four, and five to Usyk, six and seven to Rico, eight to Usyk, which is the most controversial round, nine to Rico, and they were split on 10.

[00:03:29]Two of them gave it to Usyk. One of them gave it to Rico. I thought Usyk won that round. He did really well toward the end of it. So, in total, the judges had it 95 to 95 going into the 11th round, which would have been a 108 due to the knockdown. Ultimately going into a potential 12th, which it should have went to the 12th, not ended in the 11th with Usyk ahead on the scorecards. This is very interesting. Now, we're going to get to the scoring and why this doesn't make sense later. Let's first start with the finish here. Why was the fight stopped after the bell rang? So, the fight is ruled by the WBC rule set. The WBC because they're the only sanctioning body that was willing to sanction the fight due to how lopsided this fight was supposed to be. Everybody expected Rico to get absolutely destroyed out there that no other body wanted to even be a part of this. He has one professional fight in boxing against one of the greatest of all time coming off some of the biggest wins of his career. This fight was not supposed to be close. The WBC took over and it was part of their rule set. And very importantly to note when we talk about the finish here.

[00:04:33]Sometimes you hear people say that boxers cannot be saved by the bell anymore. This is according to the new rules. It used to be a thing it isn't anymore. That is leaving out some very important context. According to the official rules that I have right here, it states that a boxer cannot be saved by the bell if they are knocked down.

[00:04:53]only if they're knocked down. Therefore, if the fighter is still standing and the bell rings, technically, they can be saved by the bell. This is very important when we talk about the finishing sequence here. And it's a part of the context that a lot of people are missing when they're talking about how boxers can't be saved by the bell anymore. The other thing we have to note here is that there is no standing count anymore. The WBC does not recognize any standing count if a boxer's hurt against the ropes or something like that. So, when we talk about Usyk trying to finish Rico and the bell rings, ending the round, the referee must cause an abrupt decision right there. And that being Rico surviving the 11th round, but instead of that, he rewards Usyk for throwing punches after the bell and stops the fight, giving him a TKO win instead of allowing Rico to be saved by the bell, which is a thing in boxing.

[00:05:44]Let's look at the sequence here. Rico Verhovven is tired at this point. You know, he's not used to a 12 round fight and kickboxing gets five rounds. So, he's past the 30 minute mark for the first time in his combat sports career.

[00:05:55]But, he's still pushing forward. He's still throwing punches and Usyk times the perfect right uppercut clean on the jaw that whiplashes his head and knocks his mouthpiece out. So, Rico drops and the referee begins to count. He points Usyk to the neutral corner, goes back to Rico who's standing up trying to recover. And before the 10 count is over, the referee is pointing to Rico's coach who has a mouthpiece. And a referee cannot allow a boxer to continue to fight without a mouthpiece if there is a break in action. I see a lot of people saying Usyk was robbed in this moment. He shouldn't be able to pounce on him and finish him. But he knocked Rico's mouthpiece out. And the referee is supposed to put the mouthpiece back in when there's a break. The break is the 10 count. He puts the mouthpiece and it takes him almost 10 seconds extra to get the mouthpiece in and continue the fight. Now the coach does mess up putting it in. So he adds on like another second or two. I didn't like that. But everything right there the referee was supposed to do. That is by protocol. He did not rob Usyk of a moment. Perhaps that second or two extra from the coach messing up putting the mouthpiece in was follow if he did that on purpose. Of course that's the only part of it that I do feel bad for Usyk.

[00:07:01]But everything else was part of boxing.

[00:07:03]Like everything else is part of the rules. The referee acted exactly how he was supposed to and Rico here did nothing wrong. He's a rocked guy. He got hit by a big shot. Mouthpiece flew out.

[00:07:12]We see this happen many times in boxing and he got right back into the fight as his coach points to Usyk. Tell him to focus on his opponent. The referee continues the fight and Usyk continues to fire. He lines up the last straight off of a jab that gets partially blocked. This is seen in the replay. So Rico blocks the punch before it lands on his face. Taking some of the power off of it. Rico's moving away. He backs up into the corner and he's still days from the knockdown earlier it seems. But then Usyk lands a big right hook around the guard. Then a grazing left uppercut that lands with the wrist. Now this is not allowed in boxing. He lands another hook around the guard. A left straight that lands pretty clean there. Hurts Rico again. Throws a left straight to the chest. Doesn't hit to the head. And Rico's covering up and he fires back at Usyk showing the referee and his opponent and potentially even his own corner that he's still in the fight. He throws a punch at Usyk, getting to back up, but Usyk backst steps perfectly for a counter, laying a left hook on the jaw, right hook around the guard, and as he was throwing the left uppercut, the bell rings. The bell precisely rings before the left uppercut even lands. So, left uppercut lands and Rico's moving forward. He throws a jab to the body.

[00:08:21]Usyk angles to his left. You see the referee trying to squeeze in there. The bell's already rung. The round should already be over. Usyk throws a right hook that doesn't land with too much power. He touches him with the left hand. It wasn't really like a big strike. And he throws a right hook that gets perfectly blocked by Rico. And Rico's also pushing him away to create distance between them two, showing awareness in the moment. And then the referee steps in to stop the fight. This is well past the bell ringing. There are four punches thrown when the bell rang, including the uppercut. The bell rang at the same time that he threw it and the three follow-up punches were after the bell and Rico blocked the last one perfectly, showing that he is still in the fight. He took a lot of damage there and honestly, I think he probably wouldn't have survived the 12th, but we've seen crazy stuff before. I saw Tyson Fury get like the soul taken out of him from a right hand from Wilder and then won the next round. We've seen crazy stuff like that before. And even though I think that Rico is going to lose the next round and probably get finished, we have to see it happen. We can't stop fights based off of speculation. We have to actually see them get finished. This is not a moment where the fight should have been stopped. We can say Usyk was probably going to win still, but we have to acknowledge that we have to see it actually happen and that this was a very bad stoppage from the referee. Regal should have been saved by the bell, move into the next round, and then we see what happens. If Usyk hurts him in the beginning of it, lands a left hand, and Rico's just all out of it, and he's taking another barrage or something, then I understand stopping the fight there. But the round ended, the bell rang. There were punches there that Usyk was not allowed to throw, which is a thing a lot of people don't mention either. Technically, because the round ended, Usyk threw multiple punches that should not have even counted, but did count leading to the referee to stop the fight. That is one of the biggest issues here. The referee did a horrible job.

[00:10:07]And because of the bad stoppage, he's going to be appealing this to the commission. Good luck to Rico Verhovven on that. It's going to be quite difficult. They don't usually like to overturn fights. But this wasn't just about the referee either. The finish was weird, but so was the scoring. It was 95 to 95, a tie going into the 11th round.

[00:10:27]We could look at some of the controversial rounds here. Now, the WBC scores fights a little differently. They don't count defense, which is interesting. The ABC does. They score fights based on three evaluations. This is according to their official scoring system. 80% of the evaluation is going to be based off of effective aggressiveness. This is the most important aspect in boxing. Number two is if there's no difference found in effective aggressiveness, the second thing they look at is ring generalship, which accounts for 15% of the evaluation. And if there's no difference when it comes to ring generalship, then they go to pure aggressiveness. So it's effective aggressiveness first, then ring general ship, then pure aggressiveness. So, it's almost like MMA in a way. Now, effective aggressiveness could be confusing if you're uh used to MMA scoring. It's different. So, this is what it states here. By definition, just so we have a good understanding of it.

[00:11:23]So, quote, "Effective aggressiveness is the main and key element for favoring a boxer in the scoring of a round.

[00:11:30]Effective aggressiveness is connecting legal punches with power, number, and accuracy to the legal points of the body and face. So remember that left uppercut that lands with the wrist that does not count. That's not a legal punch.

[00:11:44]Aggressiveness is throwing punches whether walking forward, backwards, or sidewards. Effective is scoring in number powerfully emphasis there accurate and cleanly. So offense alone without accurate, powerful and clean scoring should not be favored over a boxer who by boxing technically is avoiding the aggressor and scoring cleanly. One could win a round by walking backwards, sideways, or being against the ropes if he throws and lands more punches with accuracy, cleanliness, and power than his rival. Effective aggressiveness is scoring punches and nothing else. Pretty clear-cut, right?

[00:12:21]So, these like light strikes and grazing shots are not scored. They have to be specifically powerful, clean, and accurate. Ring generalship is the second most important ingredient to favor a boxer in the scoring of a round. to excel in the ring by moving aggressively or defensively to maneuver the opponent so he cannot use his own skill whether against the ropes in the corners or in the center of the ring. The imposition of the style could be the aggressor not letting his rival to perform or a boxer not allowing a puncher to punch making him miss stumble whose style dominated the round. So pretty much just not allowing the guy to do what he does best because of your footwork and movements.

[00:13:00]And then pure aggressiveness. We're probably never going to score this, but it's basically just a guy moving forward. It says, "However, if the judge could not find an advantage for any of the two boxers based on effective aggressiveness or range generalship, then the round shall be given to the boxer who went constantly after the other. To the boxer who went always forward trying to win the round against the other, who mostly tried to get away and not be competitive with throwing punches in the round. Pure aggressiveness should win the round as there was nothing else to evaluate. So pretty much to score these rounds, we're just going to X out the light strikes and only focus on medium and heavy.

[00:13:33]Usually we look at all of them, but considering the way that they score effective aggressiveness, biggest punches, cleanest shots, that's what's going to win these rounds, right? So let's look at rounds five and eight specifically. I think rounds three, four, and 10 should have went to Usyk.

[00:13:48]Three was very close. Rico landed some good shots there. He landed a big right hand over the guard, but Usyk landed his own big punches there, too. I think overall he was landing cleaner shots than Rico. There was a good left hand in the clinch, a right hook around the guard, multiple counter shots. He did a pretty good job in the third, I think, to edge it out, but it was a very competitive round. But the fifth round is where things get interesting. This round they gave to Usyk and the eighth.

[00:14:15]So, we go into the fifth round, and we have to remember that clean and powerful and accurate shots are what count for effective aggressiveness. So if it's like a grazing punch that has no real impact, we don't even count it, which is quite different than MMA, which actually makes it easier to categorize, honestly.

[00:14:32]So punches like this are not counted.

[00:14:35]Doesn't land clean. It's not powerful, you know. So they both land punches here. Rico's reaching with the right. It lands clean, but it's not powerful. And for Usyk, he throws a jab that grazes, and it's also not powerful. And you see this jab, it like grazes the top of the head. This does not count. This left hook grazes and also hits with the wrist. This does not count either. But then Rico lands a clean jab to the chin.

[00:14:57]Very good shot from him. And you can see like a big reaction from Usyk. And then as he crashes into the clinch with Usyk, he lands an uppercut to the body that seems to get like a pretty good reaction out of Usyk. It's a clean shot as well.

[00:15:09]So a good punch there from Rico. Then they both land decent shots on each other. Clean shots where Usyk lands a left straight and Rico lands a jab. And then when they're in close, there's a good left hand from Usyk. But we can't see the body shot from Rico. We do know that Usyk's right arm was guarding his body, so he could have blocked it or maybe he got hit. We can't see it from the camera angle. Then there's a precise right stray through the guard from Rico Lance square to the face. Slightly pushes him away with the punch. Then there's a clean counter left hook from Usyk as Rico is pushing forward.

[00:15:40]Probably the biggest shot from him of the entire round. Jab through the guard from Usyk. Then the last clean shot from the round was from Rico landing a jab.

[00:15:49]So, at the end of the fifth round, honestly, it's very close. It's a swing round. If you think Usyk won, if you think Rico won, I can see it go either way. I think Rico may have edged it just slightly, but these are one of those rounds that can really go either way.

[00:16:03]They both also had really good ring generalship, causing each other to miss a lot of punches. Now, Rico threw a lot of faints, which might make his stats look pretty bad for this round, low accuracy and all that, but there was a lot of faints that weren't meant to land. It was meant to distract Usyk for his actual committed shots to get through. If we go off of pure aggressiveness, I guess that also goes to Rico. But I think Rico edged this slightly. But if you say that Usyk should have won this, I can understand that. Very, very close round where not really much happened honestly. And they both landed like the same amount of medium strikes. And we finally go to the eighth round. And the first clean shot was from Rico landing a powerful uppercut as Usyk is ducking his head into it, covering up. This is a big shot from Rico. And as they disengage from the clinch, they both throw a lead right hook. And even though Usyk was somewhat grazing, it was powerful. You could see some good impact there, but it wasn't clean. Rico was clean and powerful, getting the better of the exchange. Now Rico's angling off to the outside of the lead foot, lining up his right hand as Usyk is backstapping for his left uppercut. His uppercut misses as Rico's lands clean, powerful shot as well, and stumbles Usyk close to the ropes. This is one of the biggest shots from Rico in the entire fight. And Rico gets closer in range, ducks in and throws the right hook as Usyk's trying to counter him with his lead right hook. And both guys do land, but Usyk doesn't throw his punch with that much power. Rico does.

[00:17:28]And this left hook from Rico gets around the guard. Lands clean. You can see where the glove is landing on the side of the head, not even on the guard at all. There's a left uppercut that's thrown pretty powerfully, but it does graze as Rico's moving away from it.

[00:17:40]Then he throws another left uppercut that grazes as Rico pulls away from it.

[00:17:44]But the follow-up jab was very clean.

[00:17:46]Snaps Rico's head back. There's a right uppercut in the clinch from Rico that pops up Usyk's head. There's a left straight from Usyk that seems to land through the guard. Then a left uppercut from Usyk measuring off of the right hook, but it does get somewhat blocked as Rico's pushing down on the bicep. You can see how his arms right in there obstructing the punch from landing with full power, which is why you didn't see much of a reaction from him. Jab from Rico lands clean and that ends the eighth round. As you can see, it's not even close. Rico easily wins the eighth round. He landed much more powerful shots and more of them. So, we're giving Usyk rounds three, four, and 10. Three being very close as well. And let's say Rico survived the 11th round. Let's say they don't stop it. That's a 108 for Usyk. Going into round 12, it'd be 103 to 105, meaning that Usyk would be down going into the 12th round. I don't know what would have happened in that round.

[00:18:39]Usyk probably could have knocked him out. Rico could have survived, moved around, and lose it by a 10- nine to win the WBC title. Who knows how that 12th round would have went. And that's the biggest issue of it all. It should have been let go, given Rico a fair shot, and see what actually would have happened.

[00:18:55]And Rico exceeded everyone's expectations. Honestly, I think Rico's a pretty good boxer. I think his skills have been very underestimated. Now, we haven't seen him box like this ever.

[00:19:05]He's really trained well for this. He studied Usyk well. He came out there with a good game plan and surprised all of us. It wasn't like he was some heavyweight with a puncher's chance only. He came out there and actually was beating Usyk in multiple rounds just off of skill. And Usyk is regarded as one of the most technical heavyweight boxers of all time. For Rico to pull something like that off is something he should not feel bad about himself for. Now, he wants to win, of course. He wants to become one of the greatest combat sports athletes of all time. If he were to have beaten Usyk, he's up there in the top five, top three maybe. Now, what I think is right is if they give him a rematch.

[00:19:40]Usyk seems to do better in rematches than he does in the first fight. He's really good at breaking down his opponent like that. The first time against Rico was also tougher for Usyk because he's never seen Rico box like this. The guy only has one professional fight. He only had to study his kickboxing matches, which is a completely different sport. Now that he understands more of Rico's game, honestly, I don't like Rico's chances in the rematch, but we'll see what he does.

[00:20:03]He surprised us here. He was winning the fight. So amazing work from Rico Verhovven. A good fight from Usyk, too.

[00:20:10]He was actually bringing it. He did say something strange on Twitter though. He was like, I was trying not to make this boring. And it's like, does Usyk have an Ali Abdelaziz? Cuz I don't think Usyk would say that. And it does seem like similar to the Enanu situation. But the difference is people learn from that.

[00:20:25]People learn that these guys coming from other combat sports can cross over into boxing and do well, especially if you're not taking them seriously. I don't know if Fury took Enanu seriously. I don't give that same excuse to Usyk though because you look at Anthony Joshua. He learned and treated Enanu like a real opponent and dusted him easily. And I think Usyk did the same thing here. I don't think he underestimated Rico.

[00:20:46]Rico's just better than we all expected.

[00:20:48]And Usyk did not know how this guy boxes. So hopefully the rematch happens.

[00:20:52]It's going to be very interesting. And I hope you guys enjoyed the breakdown.

[00:20:54]Make sure you leave a like, subscribe, hit the bell for notifications, leave a comments below. Did you guys think the stoppage was fair? And who' you guys have winning the fight up until that moment? And I'll see you guys in the next video.