Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Usyk vs. Ricardo Verhoeven & Frank Sanchez vs. Richard Torrez Jr. RBR.

Absolutely.

But he was obviously out of shape, like Lewis was vs Vitali.. so don't say he could train beyond the thresholds of pain every time.. because he didn't do that here.

 

In a sense I agree with you, in that focus is part of being a great athlete, and at the end of the day, he owns it one way or the other, but it is different when it is your children.

 

All the Cubans? Are you sure the knee was an excuse?

 

Sapp love him or hate him K-1 struck gold with Sapp. Dude had K-1 drawing huge live gates. Ridiculous TV numbers. 54 million people watched that Bob Sapp Vs ex sumo fighter Akebono. 34m watched Sapp vs Pro-wrestler Takayama. Seeing Sapp popularity in real time was wild.

Remember before Sapp we had Andy Hug era who was amazing. Again mad popular.

K-1 never had worked fights. Plenty of questionable stoppages or bad judging yes for sure but no works.

 

And it got to be too much for him to see the final bell. He was plum tuckered. But like somebody else said (maybe ellerbe?) bending over like that, like Verhoeven was, Usyk could have landed that uppercut much sooner than he did. He better be in proper shape next time, because I don't like people having a joke at boxing's expense.

 

Some belated thoughts about the main event

* I think the commentary was pretty bad and ignored a lot of Usyk's work while exaggerating Rico's work. I do think Rico was, at absolute worse even on the cards going into the eleventh and I personally had him ahead 6-4, but I don't buy into the idea of Usyk being hopelessly behind at the time of the stoppage. Scorecards were acceptable. Rico was definitely in the fight and maybe slightly ahead. The scorecards reflected that.

* Stoppage itself didn't look that great. I've seen worse, though. RV was clearly shaken, hurt and not really defending himself too well in that moment. I can't see him faring all that well in the 12th given how hurt and knackered he appeared. Still, he probably deserved the chance attempt to recover given how competitive the fight had been to that point.

* I wouldn't mind seeing Rico again. He had a very solid gameplan, implemented it well and showed real, if awkward, craft. He's earned a shot at someone notable.

* Usyk's clearly not the number one fighter in the world anymore. The number one fighter in the world doesn't struggle that much with Primo Carnera 2.0 (and I like Da Preem). He may not have taken it as seriously as he should have, or he may be sliding or maybe it's both. Either way, he's no longer p4p number one and this isn't in dispute. If you *do* want to dispute it, I would respectfully suggest hurling yourself off the tallest building you can find. Maybe the impact will wake you up to that fact. If it doesn't, please pick yourself up and repeat the action till it does.

Again...Respectfully.

*Good fight, though. I honestly wouldn't mind seeing it again.

 

Usyk and Rico was the most entertaining heavyweight fight I've seen in a long while

 

This fight will be talked about for a hundred years. Best God damn fight I've seen since 1975.

 

Rico fought with a total disregard for usyk and did his thing. Good fight but not an especially great heavyweight fight. More of a surprise

 

Good fight because of the context, not one to rewatch without the feeling of jeopardy. A scrappy affair with much more will than outright skill.

 

Here the two K-1 legends Peter Aerts and Ernesto Hoost speak about it:

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They have different views. Aerts was very impressed, Hoost not so much.

And here Schilt in a Dutch video:

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You can put the subtitles to English. Schilt thinks the stoppage was correct.

Semmy def. Rico back in the day:

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And here Tony Bellew asked Rico if Usyk s punch was the hardest he ever got hit from, and Rico said no, Semmy Schilt had the hardest punch.

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I dont doubt that. SChilt is physically so much bigger and heavier as Usyk standing 6ft11 (212 cm) weighting around 132 kg (295 lbs).

 

I didn't find it entertaining - it was sad to see how much Usyk has faded. His usual excellent footwork wasn't there anymore, and his reflexes were not sharp.

It reminded me of Ali vs Berbick.

 

Schilt had some impressive power. He finished multiple elite kickboxers with just his jab. It often wasn't pretty, but it was very effective. He was also thirty nine years old when he beat Rico. The real kickboxing heavyweight GOAT.

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I would see him all in all as GOAT there too, not Rico, not Aerts, not Hoost, not Bonjasky, etc..

Yes the way he KOd Sefo, who definately could take something, was very impressive:

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Also how he KOd Mark Hunt who had one of the best chins and also could take much to the body or legs:

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