Though the headlines, and widespread opinion, suggested that Oleksandr Usyk salvaged victory with his 11th round stoppage victory over Rico Verhoeven, the Ukrainian was in fact on course to retain his WBC heavyweight title on points.
At the time of the contentious stoppage, two judges had the fight even (95-95) while the third had the underdog ahead, 96-94. However, given Usyk’s dominance in the 11th, he would have been ahead going into the last round if referee Mark Lyson had not stopped the contest.
Unusually, the judges – Manuel Oliver Palomo, Pasquale Procopio and Fabian Guggenheim – were unanimous in their scoring of every session except for the 10th.
The official punch stats were also close with the 1-1 (1 KO) Verhoeven landing 113 to Usyk’s 112. All of the stats, then, point to those watching who were convinced that the Dutch challenger, 1-1 (1 KO), was on the brink of a stunning victory might have been influenced by the element of surprise; Verhoeven, after all, was doing astronomically better than anyone predicted against Usyk, 25-0 (16 KOs).
How did the judges score it?
Round one (Verhoeven)
Palomo – 10-9 Verhoeven
Procopio – 10-9 Verhoeven
Guggenheim -10-9 Verhoeven
Round two (Verhoeven)
Palomo – 10-9 Verhoeven
Procopio – 10-9 Verhoeven
Guggenheim -10-9 Verhoeven
Round three (Usyk)
Palomo – 10-9 Usyk
Procopio -10-9 Usyk
Guggenheim – 10-9 Usyk
Round four (Usyk)
Palomo – 10-9 Usyk
Procopio -10-9 Usyk
Guggenheim – 10-9 Usyk
Round five (Usyk)
Palomo – 10-9 Usyk
Procopio -10-9 Usyk
Guggenheim – 10-9 Usyk
Round six – (Verhoeven)
Palomo – 10-9 Verhoeven
Procopio – 10-9 Verhoeven
Guggenheim -10-9 Verhoeven
Round seven (Verhoeven)
Palomo – 10-9 Verhoeven
Procopio – 10-9 Verhoeven
Guggenheim -10-9 Verhoeven
Round eight (Usyk)
Palomo – 10-9 Usyk
Procopio -10-9 Usyk
Guggenheim – 10-9 Usyk
Round nine (Verhoeven)
Palomo – 10-9 Verhoeven
Procopio – 10-9 Verhoeven
Guggenheim -10-9 Verhoeven
Round 10 (Split)
Palomo – 10-9 Usyk
Procopio – 10-9 Verhoeven
Guggenheim – 10-9 Usyk
Source: boxingscene.com