This Weekend's Boxing (Garcia vs. Benn - August 12th)

[NeverYield]

2 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Is he on the undercard?

I like Rico but I reckon Usyk stops him, maybe even in the first six rounds. 

🤣 He'll be knocking about somewhere I am sure.

I like Rico too, I have followed KB a fair bit through the years to be fair, I think it's a great discipline and very exciting as a spectator.

But I agree with you're prediction. 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

You can't stop a fight like that. You let him go back to the corner but tell them that he has to show something at the start of the 12th. 

British fight fans should never complain about refs from other countries again. 

[HandsomeButchIII]

From the outhouse as regards stoppages a couple of weeks ago, to another outhouse as regards stoppages. One too far too late, and one that shouldn't have occurred. 

Where is Mickey Vann when you need him?

[wandshogun09]

What a barmy sport. Stoppage aside, I never would’ve predicted the fight to play out like that. Reminded me a lot of Fury vs Ngannou where it feels like a mix of one guy (Fury/Usyk) maybe not taking the fight as seriously as they should and the other guy (Ngannou/Verhoeven) performing better than anyone expected. Was a strange one, I’m not sure if Usyk is finally just starting to look old or what but after a showing like this, it’s probably time to start thinking about retirement. He looked bad here against a guy who was, on paper, the weakest opponent he’d faced in years. Fair play to Rico. Performance of the year stuff even despite it going down as a loss officially. 

[Egg Shen]

Crikey, what have we witnessed there.

The actual stoppage came after the bell, but you could see the ref attempting to step just as it was sounding, still you have to give Rico the benefit of the doubt there surely despite that first heavy knockdown.

The cards had Usyk ahead regardless if you scored that 11th, there's gonna be uproar. I had it similar to the DAZN scorecard, I gave Usyk 2-3 rounds max. I'm not sure if I was getting carried away with the mental nature of it, but it really did feel like Rico was winning quite comfortably up until the 11th.

Verhoeven was just a massive, awkward, physical lump. I thought he would fade after 4 rounds or so but he looked great until the last round of the fight.

[NeverYield]

Boxing is so hard to defend when it does nonsense like that. That stoppage should never have happened, he was saved by the bell! And even still, if you say he would have got stopped in the 12th round anyway, which is a strong possibility, why are you going to rob a man who has lost what, 1 or 2 rounds max, the whole fight! Rico was fit, prepared, and strong, and Usyk had an off night and looked a bit flat footed but I saw plenty of training from Usyk in the lead up to this, I'm a great supporter of his, and follow his career.

And in any case, boxers who don't train for crossovers should train anyway which a heavy degree of tact because you can come unstuck. 

There is a case Usyk definitely wasn't himself, you could see as much, but I'm not buying this "usyk didnt train" rubbish, that's not who Usyk is, he's a consummate professional, he may not have trained like he would have for someone else, but he definitely didnt sit on his arse thinking he was gonna come in and just nick a few quid. 

Fair paly to Rico. 

[Egg Shen]

3 minutes ago, NeverYield said:

 And even still, if you say he would have got stopped in the 12th round anyway, which is a strong possibility, why are you going to rob a man who has lost what, 1 or 2 rounds max, the whole fight! 

Usyk was ahead. You could make the argument that the open scoring influenced the referee's decision to step in because he would likely have been aware that Usyk was pulling away with that knockdown.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Usyk has fought at a high level most of his career. Since 2017 the only fights he has had that weren't for a world title were the two fights when he moved up to Heavyweight against Chazz from Wetherspoons and Del Boy. He had an off night, for whatever reason it didn't click. He was lucky it was against a guy having his 2nd pro boxing fight. All the credit in the world has to go to Rico, and to Peter Fury for training him. That performance was one nobody expected. 

You can't imagine Usyk will want to go out like that. I hope Kabayel gets his turn, but I'm not sure he does. That's a stadium fight in Germany but Turki will probably want it on Mars or something. 

[NeverYield]

2 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Usyk was ahead. You could make the argument that the open scoring influenced the referee's decision to step in because he would likely have been aware that Usyk was pulling away with that knockdown.

Usyk was ahead indeed but not on my card. I love boxing, I love Usyk, Usyk is one of the most legitimate sportsmen boxing has ever had, a true road warrior who won all his belts as the away fighter, cool, calm, deals with pressure well. But on the night in question, last night, for whatever he reason, Rico was able to put it on him, bully him a bit, landed the right hand numerous times and was able to generally really assert himself, and this was for most of the fight. I personally had Verhoeven up by 2 rounds after the tenth. 

And in a championship fight referees shouldln't assume anything in my opinion, it's not their job to assume, it's their job to assess what's happening in the ring and make a call based upon what they see, and Rico was showing enough to survive that last few seconds, gain a minutes rest and potentially go out on his shield, if the referee was still sure he needed to save Rico, or Usyk did legitimately drop him and stop him, which was a very high possibility, do it then, but that stoppage was ridiculous in my opinion. 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

We haven't talked about Richard Torrez and his wonderful 80s porn star barnet and tache getting put to sleep by Frank Sanchez. Another great American hope gets splattered. A tremendous fight ending punch by Sanchez. 

Also God love Jack Catterall, he's a wonderfully skilled boxer, but he could put a glass eye to sleep. If he were to fight Devin Haney the Compubox computer would hang itself. 

[NeverYield]

Yes Catterall suffers from the fact that he is incredibly skilled, but does everything in a manner where nowhere is going to implore their friends to watch a Jack Catterall fight. 

Haney as well like you mentioned.

It doesn't matter how much you explain the subtleties of boxing to someone, clue them in on what someone is doing, and why they're doing it, most people will prefer a Wardley roughing it out type fight, or even Verhoeven going for it, than a sublime boxing lesson.

Fwiw though, I appreciate Haney and Catterall, their boxing is great, but from spectator point of view they can do one 🤣

[jimufctna24]

 

Verhoeven should be able to earn a few more big paydays in boxing on that performance. Good on him. While Coppinger's scorecard for DAZN was generous to Verhoven imo, I could happily agree with a scorecard that had Verhoeven entering the 11th round with a 2 point lead.

I'm not sure if age has caught up with Usyk or whether he just didn't prepare/gameplan properly (or both). Regardless, as a fan I hope he retires. I may have been tempted to pick Itauma to beat him before the weekend. Now I would actually do so. 

 

[NeverYield]

I think we'll see Verhoeven again, and rightly so. 

I watched a fair bit of Usyk in the build up, whether that was all for the cameras or not, who knows, but he certainly appeared flat footed, and I can't imagine him totally undertaining to be honest, he has always been a consummate professional. 

He definitely would have underestimated Verhoeven though but Verhoeven came to the ring with the biggest spanner he could find and threw it smack back in the works and you can't take that away from him. 

I think the next fight will reveal more about Usyk, it wouldln't be the first time a fighter has started his decline overnight, especially at 40, fighting at a high level for years, but I think we'll be able to assess more after his next fight. 

[Egg Shen]

Verhoeven done himself proud throughout the whole thing. He's a big name in the combat sports world but boxing only fans just didn't know who he was. Came off great pre, during and post-fight, good on him.

I thought Catterall had one of his more entertaining performances, but that's not saying a lot 😄

 

[Gooner]

I had the fight level going into round 11, not a good stoppage by the ref, but Usyk most likely stops Verhoeven in the final round  or ends up winning on points going by judges scorecards going into round 11. Verhoeven done very well and has earned himself another big pay day in boxing with that performance.

Usyk looked sluggish throughout, but done what he needed to do, when he had to get it done. It's got people asking.a lot of questions about Usyk now, has father age caught up with him? Did he not train or take the challenge as serious as he should have? Is he vulnerable to be taken out by the competition? And so on. Nothing has changed for me, Usyk still beats the rest of the competition, bring on Kabayel in a football stadium in Germany and watch Usyk end him in front of his people like he has done before to countless others and if the Warren's are feeling froggy, send forward Moses Itauma and Uysk will take another British soul home with him.