Former WBO cruiserweight champion Johnny Nelson said “boxing snobbery” meant Rico Verhoeven was not considered a threat to Oleksandr Usyk.
Nelson was full of admiration for the big Dutchman, but also felt the 39-year-old Usyk was out of sorts.
“It’s boxing snobbery, isn’t it?’ said Nelson. “I thought, ‘He doesn’t stand a chance, this guy.’ If he’s fit, I’d expect him to go the distance because from mixed martial arts, those guys are unbelievably fit and they’re used to getting kicked in the head. If he’s under some kind of delusion, he’ll absolutely get slaughtered. And I thought, from the second round onwards, Usyk’s back foot was flat. It wasn’t on the ball. And if you watch the fight again, you’ll see Rico’s big right hands were just whizzing past.
“And then I heard on the commentary that he was his heaviest weight, I’m thinking, ‘I’m trying to make excuses for him.’ And then I thought, ‘He’ll step it up a little bit now.’”
But Verhoeven, who’d only had one professional boxing match before but was one of the all-time great kickboxers, was in there and well in the fight until the stoppage came with just a second left in the 11th round.
Referee Mark Lyson intervened, after Verhoeven had been dropped by a terrific right uppercut, with Usyk following in as his brave opponent took cover on the ropes.
“But Rico was that big, Usyk was spending all his time trying to navigate his way through the size and the shots that he wouldn’t possibly see coming,” Nelson added. “And the danger was there, he was getting caught with a simple jab. He got caught when a shot landed to the body. And you can see, it made him in more defensive mode than offensive mode. And even when he wanted to be offensive, he only did it in like 30-second spurs going through the fight.
“I had Usyk behind on points. He needed a knockout. He didn’t need a knockdown, he needed a knockout to win the fight.”
As it was, two cards marked the boxers level and one favoured the Dutchman by two points. Had the tallies for the 11th round been added then Usyk would have been in position to win on points.
It was after four rounds when Nelson started to believe Usyk was in a real battle.
“From four rounds on, I thought, ‘Usyk’s 39, is this his time? Has it caught up on him?’ Because people think fighters are unbeatable until they’re beaten. I saw Usyk fight and I thought, he has just shown people how he can be beaten.
“If you’re aggressive, you’re rugged, you’re big and you’re strong, and you’re attacking, but you can be consistent with that strength and attack all the way through, not fade out five or six rounds down the line. If you can be consistent with it, then he’s under pressure because he’s waiting for your pace to drop. Then he can start picking up and taking you apart.”
Nelson also felt Usyk had taken his opponent lightly and that he’d been distracted, but Nelson feels Verhoeven more than merits a return contest.
He believes, ultimately, it will come down to what the Ukrainian star wants to do next.
“Usyk’s one of the very few fighters that we have that is bigger than the belt,” Nelson said.
“It doesn't matter [that] he’s been stripped of the WBO. Does anybody think that Daniel Dubois is the heavyweight champion of the world? No.
“They think the best heavyweight in the world is Oleksandr Usyk. So, Usyk’s in a position where he’s like, do what you want. If you want a piece of the action, fine.
“If I was Usyk, I would get the rematch, get that over and done with. He should get that win – but I’m being boxing snob again – he should get that win. And then, wherever [Agit] Kabayel is, then slip it in there. And the other thing is this, financially, which one makes more financial sense for him now after that? Would, financially, he be better fighting Kabayel or would it be financially better fighting Rico again? The business is, ‘I’ve got to make as much [money] as I can while I'm doing this job. I’m 39. I’m almost done.’ We saw he’s reaching that part where you go down.”
