Usyk /Rico Stoppage - Clean or Dodgy?

[Heldenjaeger]

I wonder how much if that was due to the commentators and Copp's scorecards. Whenever they showed the punch stats the commentary team were shocked that Usyk had actually been out landing Rico for much if the fight. I suspect that they were counting punches that hadn't been landing and were getting ahead of themselves. Either that or Turki made sure everyone legitimised the fight. Usyk won more rounds than the production were giving him credit for and I think that influenced a lot of people's decisions.

For example, Copp gave Verhoeven round 5...

CompuBox is crap and honestly we should stop pretending it’s some authoritative metric. Half the time punches hitting gloves get counted as clean connects. It’s literally old guys with two-second reaction times mashing buttons at ringside at 1am trying to track exchanges in real time.

There’s no reason boxing should still rely on that in 2026. Let’s be honest with ourselves.

Ok, go and count them yourselves and come back and tell us what you saw. It's not an absolute authoritative metric but it's all we have.

I agree with you, we shouldn’t have to rewatch fights and manually count punches ourselves. But Jabbr is miles better than CompuBox. Why boxing still doesn’t use it properly is beyond me.

And I’m not even talking about the AI scoring side of it, although honestly that was already more competent than a lot of elite judges two years ago. At the very least, use the punch tracking instead of relying on a few old and tired humans pressing buttons in real time.

[MasterG]

Good stoppage. I'm more concerned the judges cards. Most had Dutch clearly in front.

He tired himself out with constant work rate. Usyk had his number from the 10th. If the fight went I to the 12th Usyk would have knocked him out.

Had the fight been referreed fairly it would have continued to an epic 12th round and we would have had a satisfying definitive conclusion.

Satisfying for who? Wasn't you satisfied that he got stopped and still has good health? Isn't that more important.

It wouldn't have been an epic 12th round. Usyk would have floored him in the first minute.

[Ricky]

Just watched it back on DAZN. The ref stopped it AFTER the bell rang. Clearly, for everybody to hear. He jumped in AFTER the bell. I don't know how that's even debatable. If that's not dodgy I don't know what is.

A ref can stop a fight between rounds anyway, it's a non-issue.

[Oiky]

that stoppage was poor

[Heldenjaeger]

Just watched it back on DAZN. The ref stopped it AFTER the bell rang. Clearly, for everybody to hear. He jumped in AFTER the bell. I don't know how that's even debatable. If that's not dodgy I don't know what is.

A ref can stop a fight between rounds anyway, it's a non-issue.

Duh, of course a referee CAN stop a fight between rounds. That’s literally what happened. The question is whether it was a good stoppage or a dodgy one.

A standing fighter with his hands up, throwing back, gets waved off after the bell to end round 11 and people are surprised others find it suspicious? Come on.

[Ricky]

Just watched it back on DAZN. The ref stopped it AFTER the bell rang. Clearly, for everybody to hear. He jumped in AFTER the bell. I don't know how that's even debatable. If that's not dodgy I don't know what is.

A ref can stop a fight between rounds anyway, it's a non-issue.

Duh, of course a referee CAN stop a fight between rounds. That’s literally what happened. The question is whether it was a good stoppage or a dodgy one.

A standing fighter with his hands up, throwing back, gets waved off after the bell to end round 11 and people are surprised others find it suspicious? Come on.

Read your post again, you were making a song & dance about the fact the bell went. It doesn't matter if the bell went or not, the ref can still stop it anyway.

Subsequently, you're now solely basing your arguement on whether or not he was fit to continue.

So, "Duh", yourself

[Riddick Bowie]

Good stoppage. I'm more concerned the judges cards. Most had Dutch clearly in front.

He tired himself out with constant work rate. Usyk had his number from the 10th. If the fight went I to the 12th Usyk would have knocked him out.

Had the fight been referreed fairly it would have continued to an epic 12th round and we would have had a satisfying definitive conclusion.

Satisfying for who? Wasn't you satisfied that he got stopped and still has good health? Isn't that more important.

It wouldn't have been an epic 12th round. Usyk would have floored him in the first minute.

Your arguments are reductive, not that you know what that means.

The referee would not have stopped Usyk if the roles were reversed. Anyone who watches modern boxing and has the capacity to remember what they saw knows the script by now. You're either thick or lying to yourself.

[Ricky]

Had the fight been referreed fairly it would have continued to an epic 12th round and we would have had a satisfying definitive conclusion.

Satisfying for who? Wasn't you satisfied that he got stopped and still has good health? Isn't that more important.

It wouldn't have been an epic 12th round. Usyk would have floored him in the first minute.

Your arguments are reductive, not that you know what that means.

The referee would not have stopped Usyk if the roles were reversed. Anyone who watches modern boxing and has the capacity to remember what they saw knows the script by now. You're either thick or lying to yourself.

No need for the abuse and name calling there.

Secondly, maybe the ref would've given the heavyweight champion of the world more leeway when hurt than he gave the 1-fight novice, ref's having a lower threshold for how much damage they'll allow a novice to sustain is something that's always been the case in boxing, and another reason why these crossover fights are crap.

[Heldenjaeger]

A ref can stop a fight between rounds anyway, it's a non-issue.

Duh, of course a referee CAN stop a fight between rounds. That’s literally what happened. The question is whether it was a good stoppage or a dodgy one.

A standing fighter with his hands up, throwing back, gets waved off after the bell to end round 11 and people are surprised others find it suspicious? Come on.

Read your post again, you were making a song & dance about the fact the bell went. It doesn't matter if the bell went or not, the ref can still stop it anyway.

Subsequently, you're now solely basing your arguement on whether or not he was fit to continue.

So, "Duh", yourself

I keep mentioning the bell because it objectively happened and is part of the context. You’re acting like I discovered a new conspiracy because I pointed out the exact timing of the stoppage.

And I love how you say I’m “solely” basing the argument on whether Rico was fit to continue immediately after quoting me making TWO separate points: 1) the stoppage came after the bell and 2) Rico was still standing and throwing back. Reading comprehension took a standing 8-count there.

[Ricky]

I keep mentioning the bell because it objectively happened and is part of the context.

Only because you want it to be, the ref either thinks he's fit to continue or he doesn't. He'd obviously made his decision to stop it and is hardly likely to change his mind because he hears the bell as he's breaking the action, is he?

Argue it's early all you like, but whether the ref is waving it 1 sec before the bell or 1 sec after the bell it really doesn't matter, he felt his was unfit to continue, and that's only part that does matter.

[big lennox]

It was an incredible fight to watch. Rico had a very smart game plan and stuck to it brilliantly. Uysk, suddenly looked old in there, I felt. I was a bit apprehensive when he came in so heavy.

But, despite much of the fight not going his way, he found a way to win at the end. I felt it was a compassionate stoppage rather than a robbery. One could argue it was a bit premature, but Rico was unsteady when going to have his gumshield put back in.

I felt the interviewer, Reno and Spencer were really ungracious trying to get Uysk to commit to things on the spot, after a tough battle and especially what he had just said about his family being in a bombshelter. They seemed to lack class and bring WWF into proceedings when it wasn't called for.

[Heldenjaeger]

I keep mentioning the bell because it objectively happened and is part of the context.

Only because you want it to be, the ref either thinks he's fit to continue or he doesn't. He'd obviously made his decision to stop it and is hardly likely to change his mind because he hears the bell as he's breaking the action, is he?

Argue it's early all you like, but whether the ref is waving it 1 sec before the bell or 1 sec after the bell it really doesn't matter, he felt his was unfit to continue, and that's only part that does matter.

No, it obviously matters. One scenario sends the fighter back to the corner to be assessed between rounds, the other gives him an instant TKO loss. Pretending there’s no meaningful difference between those two situations is ridiculous.

And “the ref thought he was unfit to continue” is not some magical conversation-ending argument either. Boxing literally has a 10-count system because fighters CAN recover after being hurt or dropped. If getting rocked automatically meant “unfit to continue,” there would be no point in counts existing at all.

Look at Sanchez-Torrez. Torrez got smashed so hard his head bounced off the canvas multiple times, still got assessed and given the opportunity to recover and only then did it become obvious he genuinely couldn’t continue because his legs were gone.

Rico, meanwhile, was still standing, hands up and throwing back as the bell sounded. That’s why people are questioning it.

[Riddick Bowie]

Ricky, the pattern of behaviour with British refs is that he saw an opportunity to stop the fight and rescue the A side who was in peril. The only boxing fans who don't know this in the year of our Lord 2026 are cognitively incapable of recognising patterns or lying to themselves for whatever reason.

[Ricky]

Ricky, the pattern of behaviour with British refs is that he saw an opportunity to stop the fight and rescue the A side who was in peril. The only boxing fans who don't know this in the year of our Lord 2026 are cognitively incapable of recognising patterns or lying to themselves for whatever reason.

Usyk wasn't the one in peril, the guy that ate a huge uppercut then went face first through the ropes was in peril. I'd have stopped it then.

Fwiw, neither the perceived score cards or time left in the round should ever enter a ref's thinking, but, the guy who's hurt essentially having novice & overmatched status absolutely would.

[MasterG]

Had the fight been referreed fairly it would have continued to an epic 12th round and we would have had a satisfying definitive conclusion.

Satisfying for who? Wasn't you satisfied that he got stopped and still has good health? Isn't that more important.

It wouldn't have been an epic 12th round. Usyk would have floored him in the first minute.

Your arguments are reductive, not that you know what that means.

The referee would not have stopped Usyk if the roles were reversed. Anyone who watches modern boxing and has the capacity to remember what they saw knows the script by now. You're either thick or lying to yourself.

Ouch.

Reductive is the opposite of productive and I'm not really thick, to be fair.

[wouter]

I think the only thing that makes it somewhat controversial is that it was stopped at the bell. If Rico hadn't been given 30 seconds to recover from the knockdown, it all would have been a non issue.

[TBA]

When the bell went I thought the ref was frantically trying to stop the action for the round. That would have been the obvious act, and for that it a suspicious action.

Of course the British refs are suspect AF. A few weeks ago we had Chisora with the referee purposefully giving him a walk around the ring to have extra time to recover, then another time break up the action because Chisora was taking a pummeling. And then finally stopping a round 10 seconds early to let him recover from a KD.

Now here we have the other side of the coin.

And this not even mentioning the last three Wardleys.

We all know what's up, just this time it hurts a bit more as we were in the middle of a historic story developing.

[JC]

I think the only thing that makes it somewhat controversial is that it was stopped at the bell. If Rico hadn't been given 30 seconds to recover from the knockdown, it all would have been a non issue.

Is there an official rule on what to do if the mouthpiece is knocked out during a knockdown? Is the ref allowed to just let it continue without pausing to having it replaced.

[Heldenjaeger]

I think the only thing that makes it somewhat controversial is that it was stopped at the bell. If Rico hadn't been given 30 seconds to recover from the knockdown, it all would have been a non issue.

Is there an official rule on what to do if the mouthpiece is knocked out during a knockdown? Is the ref allowed to just let it continue without pausing to having it replaced.

“If a boxer loses the mouthpiece the referee must stop the action and replace it immediately. The referee may deduct points if the mouthpiece is spat out intentionally.” WBC rules.