Heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk literally escapes with a black eye in his WBC world championship fight against kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven and wins by stoppage in the eleventh round. The referee’s decision is controversial – and due to a serious faux pas, as the referee now admits.
Referee Mark Lyson has openly and honestly admitted that his controversial decision to stop the world championship fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Rico Verhoeven at the final bell of the eleventh round was a major mistake. Peter Fury, father of ex-champion Tyson, told “IFL TV” about this.
“The referee was on the same plane as me on the flight back,” said Fury. “I told him, ‘You made a mistake.’ He said to me, and this is very important, he said, ‘Peter, I didn’t hear the gong’.”
Lyson stopped the fight on Saturday in the last second of the eleventh round and declared Usyk, who was far behind on the scorecards at the time, the winner. At first, many spectators thought that the referee had only intervened to ask the two boxers to their corners for the final break. But Lyson ended the fight instead – and immediately triggered a wave of conspiracy theories.
It is undisputed that it was a “gift” for the Ukrainian. No matter whether consciously or unconsciously.
“This is a damn robbery!”
“Incredible. That’s a joke, and a very bad one at that. That’s absolutely not okay. You can’t say that Verhoeven was unable to defend himself, and that’s the criterion. That’s really laughable,” criticized, among others, long-time Klitschko manager Bönte in the live commentary for “DAZN”.
British UFC fighter Tom Aspinall was also stunned by the cancellation and rumbled: “This is a damn robbery! What the hell is this?! Boxing doesn’t want anyone else to win. […] That’s bullshit.” An assessment that many shared after the fight.
