As the boxing world continues to debate the controversial stoppage between Oleksandr Usyk and Rico Verhoeven, Eddie Hearn has revealed how Anthony Joshua had scored the bout up to that point.
Usyk and Verhoeven went head-to-head at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt on Saturday, and it nearly resulted in arguably the biggest upset in boxing history.
Verhoeven performed much better than almost everybody had expected, with the Dutch kickboxing legend winning plenty of rounds against Usyk, and as the bout entered the closing stages there was the real possibility that he could come out on top.
Those hopes were dented in round 11 when Usyk finally found a big shot that dropped his rival. Verhoeven managed to get back up to his feet, but the Ukrainian followed it up with a flurry of punches, which led referee Mark Lyson to jump in and stop the contest.
It is that stoppage that has caused plenty of controversy, as many people believe that it was done so prematurely, especially as lots of those viewers believe that Verhoeven should have been ahead on the scorecards with one round to go.
Former unified world heavyweight champion Joshua wasn’t one of them though, as promoter Hearn told IFL TV that while ‘AJ’ was surprised at what he was seeing, he did have Usyk leading on his card.
“He was in shock. He actually had Usyk up in the fight just.”
It perhaps isn’t a surprise that Joshua was backing the Ukrainian, as even though the pair did have two fights against one another, they have since become gym-mates, with Usyk stating that he is going to help ‘AJ’ become world champion again in the future.
