Updated

Updated · Bloody Elbow · Aug 5

Joe Rogan Proposes 5-Judge App System After 11th-Round Usyk-Verhoeven Scoring Furor

Updated

Updated · Bloody Elbow · Aug 5

Joe Rogan Proposes 5-Judge App System After 11th-Round Usyk-Verhoeven Scoring Furor

Q: Did the judges secretly rob a kickboxing legend of a historic upset against an undefeated champion?

No clear evidence shows the judges secretly robbed Rico Verhoeven of a historic upset. What the available facts show is a highly controversial fight, a disputed stoppage, and scorecards that were much closer than many viewers expected. At the time of the 11th-round stoppage, two judges had the bout even at 95-95 and one had Verhoeven ahead 96-94. Those cards angered Joe Rogan and many fans because Verhoeven appeared, to them, to have controlled much of the fight. But the round-by-round cards released afterward show the judges were largely aligned, differing only on Round 10. That points more toward a narrow official reading of the fight than proof of a hidden plot. The bigger controversy is the ending. Usyk dropped Verhoeven late in Round 11, then the referee stopped the bout at 2:59, with strong criticism that the bell had already sounded. Verhoeven said an official protest was filed and argued the referee should have let him reach Round 12 or gone to the scorecards. That complaint has more factual support than claims of secret judging corruption. Even if the fight had continued to the cards, Verhoeven was not clearly headed to victory. A 10-8 round for Usyk in the 11th would likely have put the champion ahead entering the 12th. So while Verhoeven may have been denied a final-round chance, the evidence does not show he was definitively “robbed” by the judges of a win already in hand.

2 articles · Updated · Bloody Elbow · Aug 5

Joe Rogan used his podcast to propose a judging overhaul for boxing and MMA: expand panels from 3 judges to 5 and add an app for recognized experts to submit collective scores.
The pitch followed Rico Verhoeven’s fight with Oleksandr Usyk, where Rogan said Verhoeven had dominated at least 9 rounds before an 11th-round stoppage despite cards showing only a 1-round lead on one scorecard and draws on two others.
Rogan called such outcomes a product of either corruption or incompetence, arguing that with only 3 judges, 2 bad scorecards can outweigh 1 accurate one.
The bout used open scoring, with fighters updated every 4 rounds, and Verhoeven urged Rogan to become a public advocate for better judging standards.
Rogan’s app idea would tap trainers and commentators as approved scorers, though the report noted it could introduce bias if experts had ties to particular fighters.