What happened: Usyk badly faded or Rico much better than expected?

It looked like Alexander was completely out of shape and did not train properly or just took it like a sparring session

 

It's hard to say what we have seen.

I've watched some clips. Rico fights like a hunchback. Uysk should have been throwing lots of uppercuts from the start, if he wasn't he may have been going easy on him or just not prepared.
Rico has been sparring and training in boxing with high level pros for a very long time and is seriously athletic. So he could definitely hold his own boxing.

But, the american commentary was hilarious, they were creaming their knickers over what was a close fight to that point. Americans can't judge fights anyway but with the controversial stoppage it now sets up a rematch for more money (if there is a rematch it proves this was planned).

Rico got knocked down and should have got a points deduction for spitting out his mouth guard. He was also wobbly walking over after spitting it out.
That's a 10-7 round.
Uysk would have won the last at least 10-9.

It would have been a clear victory.

But for Americans who can't judge boxing they will probably get very confused especially with hilarious commentary and demand a rematch so everyone can make more money off the marks.

 

I was not surprised by how well Rico did early. I’ve been following him for many years and always thought he would be a very good boxer.
But I was genuinely shocked by how long he was able to maintain it.
That’s crazy conditioning for a man of his size, though Usyk wasn’t putting him under immense pressure Rico seemed to be in 5th gear for the most of the fight and only got a bit sloppy towards the end there.

Usyk’s reflexes haven’t been ultra sharp since his move to heavy. But his technical skill, adaptability and conditioning have allowed him to well and truly compensate for that.

He did look flat and frustrated but I’m not sure it means he has faded overnight. I can’t believe for a second he hasn’t trained his absolute butt off for this fight.
I think it’s a real possibility he needs to make a significant shift in how he prepares for fights now he is getting on in age. Like he has probably just done what he always has and actually potentially over trained.

Rico deserves a rematch or at least another few big money matchups like maybe another cross over with Ngannou?

I had Rico winning coming into the 10th but nowhere near as wide Coppinger. The 11th being a 10-8 and another dominant Usyk round in the 12th would have had him eek home on my card.

 

If that's the case, you'd think he would have learned from Fury's mistake.

 

Wow. A reasoned and reasonable take. A rarity on this forum.

 

Rico was better than expected but Usyk was also much worse than expected, that's by far the worse version of Usyk we've even seen, his work rate alone was pitiful.

Usyk for me should retire, he's mentally checked out, which is why he probably took this crossover fight in the first place. Unmotivated to fight the remaining contenders like Kabayel and Itauma, but not get ready to retire, so takes an easy fight for big money, Fury did the same with Ngannou and looked dreadful there too. Sport at the elite level is more mental than physical and it's clear to me Usyk's head is no longer in the game.

I don't expect Rico to do much after this fight. Remember what Joshua did to Ngannou, wouldn't shock me if he stepped in with Dubois, Kabayel, Itauma or Wardley and blasted out early. The difference between a fighter whose head is in the game and one whose not is huge.

 

If you count the seconds from when Rico face plants through the ropes, it looks like he gets 27-28 seconds before action is resumed. That's more time than Tyson Fury has ever gotten in his career after a knockdown. You think Usyk couldn't have finished Rico if he'd had an extra 20 seconds to work with? Despicable by that ref.

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Some of us did say that Rico would do better than people think That said, seems to me Usyk has gotten old, simple as that.

 

The ref had no choice but stop the action and get the mouth piece back in. It's standard in boxing. Corrales did it twice in the last round vs Castillo and he prob won the fight because of it.

 

The ref has every discretion in the world in the boxing ring. He absolutely had a choice. The standard forever in boxing has been that you don't stop the action when a mouthpiece comes out. You wait for a lull and THEN you call time to put it back in. Instead, this bozo gives Verhoeven an eternity to recover from a knockdown where he face planted through the ropes.


https://www.abcboxing.com/unified-rules-boxing/

6. All professional boxers are required to wear a mouthpiece during competition. The round cannot begin without the mouthpiece. If the mouthpiece is dislodged during competition, the referee will call time and have the mouthpiece replaced at the first opportune moment, without interfering with the immediate action. Points may be deducted by the referee if he feels the mouthpiece is being purposely spit out.

If you specifically want the WBC rules since that was the belt that was up for grabs, I'm happy to oblige.

https://wbcboxing.com/downloads/WBC-SYNTHESIZED-RULES-FOR-CHAMPIONSHIP-BOUTS-AL-2017.pdf

18. Protection. Both boxers must wear a mouthpiece and groin protector at
all times. A spare mouthpiece must also be available at all times. * If a
boxer loses their mouthpiece during a round the referee must stop the
action and replace it, but only during the next opportune moment so as
to prevent one boxer from spitting out his mouthpiece to gain a rest or
to prevent the advantage of the other boxer. The referee may deduct
points if the mouthpiece is spit out intentionally.

So there's a better argument that Rico should have been docked points for spitting his mouthpiece out than there is for the ref stopping the action and giving Rico damn near 30 seconds to recover.

Also, it doesn't matter that Tony Weeks is a moron and decided to stop the action to get Corrales' mouthpiece back in. In fact, that's a terrible example because that nonsense from Corrales gave him the time he needed to recover and win the fight. It was blatant cheating and should never have been allowed. Weeks should have just set them back to work after the 8 count. Weeks interjected himself into the fight in a poor way and swung the fight in Corrales' favor. Just like this ref interjected himself in a poor way and kept Usyk from sleeping Rico well before the end of the round.

 

The action was stopped, it was a knockdown lol. The perfect time to put it back in. Happened many times previously.

 

Spot on THIS!

Breakdown on what I observed:-

1. Usyk came in career heaviest, and soft looking, the sharpness he showed against Dubois was almost non-existsent.
2. Rico's gameplan under Peter Fury was excellent, and he executed it REALLY well
2.1 Keep an excellent defense, constant head movement, hands up at all times
2.2 Nullify Usyks lead hand / feints by having his own in constant motion, keeping Usyk from establishing any rythym
2.3 When throwing, throw with conviction and follow up in Usyks grill, leaning and roughhousing, risk taking to give
3. Rico's conditioning and stamina was INSANE, like most others I assumed he would gas badly mid-rounds on that plan, but he didn't
4. In contrast, likely related to 1, Usyk's conditioning was not it's usual self, and he was blowing a lot more than I can remember in any other fight rounds 9/10/11

Additionally, I think many folks were so taken aback by Rico's success and giving Usyk fits, that folks bias from the expected mismatch caused them to swing too far & give too many rounds to Rico based on "perceived success" - this was a close fight, and I think folks were missing much of what Usyk was scoring because a) he was not comfortable and hadn't established a rythym and b) Rico seemed unaffected by most of it outside round 4 were Usyk hurt him with an decent combo. But Usyk was still scoring, and rounds were closer than the narative I was seeing by commentators and folks in the RBR. I had it Rico up by 1 going in to the 11th, but could see even or Rico by 2. I think folks wlll be surprised running it back if they score properly.

So in summary I think it's a combination of

1. Usyk didn't train / prep as hard etc as he normally would have for a boxer
2. Father Time; maybe that was a big factor in 1
3. Huge credit to Rico's gameplan AND execution. Peter Fury astutely followed the successes that Chisora, Breidis and Tyson had and distilled it down into a kryptonite style to level the playing field in terms of Uysk's strengths & weaknesses
4. Rico has a similar mental strength to Usyk, he came to win and doesn't have a losing mentality; I think this maybe the biggest thing that Usyk and his camp overlooked, as I think it's a massive factor in being able to pull off 3

I'm not one for triangle therories, and I think if Rico fights another boxer in the top 10 you might see a completely different 'boxing style', not what Fury cooked up; I think this is where the fact Rico is NOT a boxer played to his advantage, he can more likely adapt to trying different strategies than other fighters that have 'boxing muscle memory' and habits ingrained.

 

Rico arguably has more wear and tear than uysk.

 

I think it was a case of Rico being better than expected. Maybe usyk wasnt 100% in his usual fighting shape, but he still went 12 rounds moving constantly so it’s not like he was completely out of shape. His biggest issue, even in the early rounds where conditioning wouldn’t have been an issue, was Rico’s feints and movement and the unpredictable shots he was throwing. It looked like he really had Usyk stumped. You could argue that Usyk only got back into the fight once the non-boxer Rico began to tire later into the fight.