{"id":38497,"date":"2026-05-27T16:07:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Rico-Verhoeven-discusses-fishy-open-scoring-in-loss-against-Oleksandr-Usyk-201343"},"modified":"2026-05-27T16:07:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:07:40","slug":"rico-verhoeven-discusses-fishy-open-scoring-in-loss-against-oleksandr-usyk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/rico-verhoeven-discusses-fishy-open-scoring-in-loss-against-oleksandr-usyk\/","title":{"rendered":"Rico Verhoeven discusses ‘fishy’ open scoring in loss against Oleksandr Usyk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Rico
\nVerhoeven<\/a> believes the scorecards were odd in his controversial
\nloss against Oleksandr Usyk. <\/p>\n

Verhoeven challenged Usyk for the WBC heavyweight title last
\nweekend in Giza, Egypt. Verhoeven dictated most of the fight before
\nhe was dropped by Usyk late in the 11th round. While Verhoeven got
\nback up, Usyk followed up with a flurry, which was enough for the
\nreferee to stop the fight with a second left in the
\nround. <\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Apart from the controversial stoppage, the scorecards also felt
\n\u201cfishy\u201d to Verhoeven. The bout had open scoring, where the
\nscorecards were revealed to the fighters after every four rounds.
\nDespite evidently leading in the early rounds, Verhoeven was
\nslightly surprised to find out that the scorecards were even after
\nthe first four rounds. When the scorecards read as even after eight
\nrounds, Verhoeven felt something was off. Verhoeven believes the
\nopen scoring even affected his performance. With the scorecards
\nbeing even after eight rounds, Verhoeven felt that he needed to put
\nhis foot on the gas to prove himself, as he was a kickboxer
\nchallenging a boxing champion.<\/p>\n

Scored Through a Boxing Lens?<\/h2>\n

\u201cThere were open scorecards, and after four rounds we got
\nscorecards,\u201d Verhoeven said on \u201cThe Ariel Helwani Show.\u201d \u201cWe were
\nlike, \u2018Hey, we’re even.\u2019 I was like, ‘Hmm, ok.’ I felt like it was
\nat least 3 to 1, but ok, we’re even, that’s fine. Then we got the
\nscorecards again after another four rounds…. And still we were
\neven. It started to feel fishy because I felt like I was winning
\nthese rounds. I was working more, I was getting hit less and I was
\ntouching him more… So maybe I have to push it a little bit more;
\nit\u2019s getting looked at through a protective boxing lens. So maybe,
\nbecause I\u2019m an outsider, I have to put in that extra work to be
\neven more convincing.\u201d <\/p>\n

When the fight was stopped, two scorecards still had it even, while
\nVerhoeven was leading on the third. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

Rico
\nVerhoeven<\/a> explains how the open scoring affected his mindset
\nduring the Usyk fight:<\/p>\n

“There were open scorecards and after 4 rounds, they said we’re
\neven. I was like, ‘Hmm, ok.’ I felt like it was at least 3 to 1,
\nbut ok, we’re even, that’s fine.<\/p>\n

Then we got the scorecards\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/neFl83JiXk<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani)
\nMay 26, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rico Verhoeven believes the scorecards were odd in his controversial loss against Oleksandr Usyk.  Verhoeven challenged Usyk for the WBC heavyweight title last weekend in Giza, Egypt. Verhoeven dictated most of the fight before he was dropped by Usyk late in the 11th round. While Verhoeven got back up, Usyk followed up with a flurry, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}