Oleksandr Usyk, Rico Verhoeven fight shouldn't have been stopped

The job of the referee in boxing is to watch the action, see fouls, and enforce the rules. The last thing a fight needs is a referee who wants to be the story and wants to be seen. Let the fighters ply their craft and see who the best fighter truly is. 

We didn't see that on Saturday with the third person in the ring of the heavyweight title clash between Oleksandr Usyk and Rico Verhoeven. The story should have been how Verhoeven was putting on a performance of a lifetime and was about four minutes away from one of the biggest upsets in sporting history. However, Mark Lyson had other plans in mind when he stopped the fight to give Usyk the shocking victory to retain his championship.

One will say, 'Well, referees make bad decisions all the time. It's part of boxing'.

In this instance, Lyson had no right to stop the fight because it should have gone to the 12th and final round because the bell had sounded when Usyk was starting what ended up being his final flurry, and before Lyson, who looked like he had no clue what was going on, could step in and make the worst in the history of heavyweight championship fights. 

Lyson knew how much time was left when the sound for 10 seconds remaining in the round, as there were nine seconds left in the round when Verhoeven finally got his mouthpiece put in from his corner after it fell out during the knockdown.

Any referee paying attention had to know that even with the knockdown by Usyk in the 11th, Verhoeven would have been up four rounds heading into the 12th and final round. And any person who is past preschool knows how to count to ten. 

A historic moment is happening right in front of you with the richest prize in boxing on the line. Unless Verhoeven got dropped again or sent out of the ring, you let the fight continue and go into the 12th and let the chips fall how they fall. 

When Verhoeven got dropped, you could see Lyson was looking to get Verhoeven out of there. Why, you might ask?

Look at Lyson's eyes and body positioning. Eyes and body language always tell the story. Lyson wasn't in a position to know how Verhoeven was taking the shots because he wasn't in the right spot. 

Rico Verhoeven got robbed in his biggest moment. He was on the verge of defeating the greatest heavyweight of this generation after dominating the world of kickboxing and only one professional boxing match. 

Instead of talking about Verhoeven's historical accomplishment, we are talking about Mark Lyson, who stopped a heavyweight championship fight out of pure incompetence. Let's hope Lyson isn't allowed anywhere near a major fight ever again for the pureness of this great sport.