Which means he's done more boxing than everyone on this forum. It wasn't a horrible stoppage. These are all the red flags Rico threw up for the ref that the ref completely ignored to try letting him continue to fight: Knocked unconscious and sent face first through the ropes Lost the mouthpiece Used the ropes to climb to his feet Ignored the ref's command to walk forward while still holding the ropes Stumbled backwards when trying to walk to his corner So the ref IGNORED ALL OF THAT, any one of which would be enough to wave a fight off. Then he gave Rico 3 business weeks to recover while they put his mouthpiece in. He only stopped the fight when Rico took 7-8 completely unanswered shots while cowering in the corner. Yet we're supposed to believe the fix was in? That the stoppage was too early? Nevermind that the ref didn't call it off after the bell. The timekeeper screwed up. There were 4 seconds left in the round. This content is protected
First he hasn't done more boxing then people on here and for you to assume he has is foolish. Second he isn't a pro boxer in the sense that you are trying to pretend he is. Its a "Hobby" and there is nothing wrong with that. It takes a fair amount of courage to step in the ring. I enjoyed the hell out of that fight and had Rico behind by 1 point. I love seeing someone create a game plan and execute it and stick to it because that is incredibly hard to do. And Usyk,to me a least, showed why he is an all-time great boxer in that he was able over come all that and still finding a way to win and that is the mark of a great boxer. And no I don't think the fight was fixed at all. People make mistakes.
Footwork was the biggest decline for mine. Maybe it wad yemporary, and due to The magic footwork deserted him, how much of that was Rico's stance and awkwardness we will see if he fights again. Personally I'd rather see Usyk retire a champion than a broken old man.
Not sure about bizarre TT, more like standard human behaviour to me. We are fairly boring and predictable creatures who love dragging the exceptional ones down to our mundane level.
If you went beyond this forum into youtube world, which is full of opinions from actual pro boxers, not some random AM boxer on twitter, you will realize all of them are saying the stoppage was awful. You won't find a single one agreeing with you and your buddy.
Yeah, especially how light on his feet and agile he used to be. But it's very noticeable in many areas. We're taking about a CW/HW who moved with the grace of a ballet dancer and one of the greatest defensive fighters of all time, let alone for a HW His reflexes and reaction times are a big one for me they used to be razor sharp And his fluidity is another huge one for me too
Ah yes, we should only be listening to the YouTubers who are desperate for clicks and views and have to get their hot-take out as quickly as possible without looking into all the evidence. Genius.
So I guess we have a little doubt as to the root cause. Age is a prominent and plausible theory, as is training and tactics; or a combination, which gets my vote. Another bout against a different opponent will probably highlight the cause. I believe the fact that they had near zero idea of how Verhoeven would fight has created tactical blunders, and perhaps Usyk's current team failed him there? That win needed to be emphatic. It appeared lucky, and according to some, contrived. He was looking for different controversy, involving a member of the caprines.
No, I saw it and comprehended it fine. You think those idiots don't also want clicks and views and more subscribers? Just go listen to Tim Bradley's ridiculous nonsense on his YT channel sometime. You can keep trying to test me if you want, goofball. You ain't never gonna be up early enough in the mornin'. I'd advise you to quit and just go whine about Usyk constantly to someone else.
It would be interesting to compare his tactics vs Rico to Usyk's. Daniel's issue has never been competence, it has been confidence. If he can ride the wave he's currently on I can't see any of the current bunch bothering him, including 40yo Oleksandr, though some up and comers have huge potential and might.