Nigerian-born former world heavyweight boxing champion, Anthony Olaseni Oluwafemi Joshua opted to stay cautious in assessing last weekend’s victory by his former rival and new friend, Oleksandr Usyk, who is facing criticism over the referee’s controversial knock-out call.
Sports247 reports that, while several boxing officials’ analysts, fans, promoters and ex-boxers outrightly slammed the referee for abruptly ending the fight on Saturday, Joshua was cagey in his reaction to the development.
He admitted that Usyk’s opponent turned out to be more capable than expected and noted that the ref appeared to end the fight early but stopped short of suggesting any foul play by the official.
Joshua’s stand is in contrast with the global boxing community, which is abuzz with condemnation of what has been tagged ‘a fix,’ after the rrf gave Usyk a knockout victory when his opponent was still ready to continue.
A heated debate is now raging globally, after Usyk’s controversial stoppage win over Rico Verhoeven, because the referee, Mark Lyson waved the fight off with one second left in round 11, while claiming that the Ukrainian was too dominant at that point.
Observers admitted that Usyk had finally turned the tide by flooring Verhoeven, a kickboxing legend, late in the 10th round, after being pushed back for much of the contest, but the man from Netherlands beat the count.
Usyk was once again on top and Lyson stepped in to stop the fight before the Dutchman had a chance to recover for the final round, much to the chagrin of many people in the boxing community, who believe he did the wrong thing.
While Verhoeven disclosed that he plans to appeal, Joshua, who was in the audience, noted that the decision was a little early and admitted the Dutch boxer gave a good account of himself.
AJ said cautiously: “I don’t know, but it was a good fight. I knew he was a good fighter. Yeah, definitely;” while Verhoeven was unhappy with the ending, saying: “I thought it was an early stoppage. The referee knows we’re almost at the end of the round.”
