Usyk barely beats Rico / Most controversial combat sports moment of the 2020s???
In what is likely to go down as one of the most controversial and talked-about boxing bouts of the 2020s, all-time great Oleksandr Usyk turned in a career-worst performance on a night where Rico Verhoeven turned in a showing that exceeded all expectations!
People are frothing at the mouth over this one. So of course I had to come on and weigh up all context and figure out what really happened.
But I can't do it alone! I need you guys to tell me your thoughts to the questions I posed in this episode!!! So let me know in the comments
Comments (10)
I think you are underselling how bad that stoppage. He was intelligently defending himself, and the last couple of shots that came before the stoppage didn't land. Sure not the worsts stoppage ever but I think if we were being reasonable we wouldn't take those comments literally.
Thanks for your comments but I had to take them seriously and address them as they were from big name combat sports accounts whose words command respect amongst the majority of fans. Sure I saw a load of oddballs but I saw sensible people losing their shit too lol
I'm very far from an expert on boxing. That looked like a terrible stoppage to me. I don't think it's because of corruption. I think it was simply a mistake on the referee's part.
That’s fair!
The tribalism of the post-fight chatter is about on par with that of non-Arsenal fans losing their minds over them winning that league. Usyk looked bad and Rico looked amazing. Shouldn't that be credit that Usyk still won then? Rico looked to me like he took a page from AJ's 2nd fight against Usyk. Accept that you're not gonna nail this dude with a giant one, and just let the hands go, especially the back hand.
Yeah it’s been really grim discourse. It is crazy that the conversation today would be totally, TOTALLY different if they’d let Rico come out for round 12 and he was definitively knocked out.
Usyk having ONE off performance at 39 and his rep is somehow damaged? Ludicrous on its face.
Welcome to the pod! Thanks for your support.
I think people are overreacting because they expected usyk to destroy rico. Boxing is definitely a corrupt sport but we see lots of shit stoppages in every combat sport
Let me know what you think once you listen to the episode. I think regardless it was a really interesting fight that gives us some great points to discuss.