rematch

Callum Simpson reclaimed the British and Commonwealth super-middleweight titles after earning a unanimous decision in his rematch with Troy Williamson.

The impressive Simpson avenged the only loss of his career, when Williamson upset the odds to stop him in the 10th round in December.

The English pair put on another thrilling contest in Leeds which the judges scored 116-112, 117-112 and 115-113 in Simpson’s favour.

The 29-year-old, fighting under new trainer Rob McCracken, rocked Williamson with a big right hand in the third round.

But Williamson, 34, hung in and stung the challenger in the eighth round. Then, knowing he needed a knockout, he took the fight to Simpson in the final round.

However, that late rally was not enough to stop Yorkshire’s Simpson improving his professional record to 19 wins and one loss.

“It feels amazing,” said Simpson. “I really didn’t want it to be that exciting, but Troy is a tough fighter. He won the last fight so he [had] every right to be confident.

“What everyone doesn’t know is that, in the last fight, I perforated both my eardrums in the first round. I was an absolute mess so that fight for me was just trying to survive.

“But I didn’t make any excuses. I’ve come back better, learned from it and I knew I was going to get the win tonight.”

Simpson’s promoter Ben Shalom said the fight was “unbelievable” and praised Williamson, now 22-5 with one draw, as he “kept coming”.

But Shalom feels Simpson is back in world-title contention and hopes to secure him a shot in the next 12 months.

“In boxing, people are so quick to write someone off,” he added. “The amount of people that told me ‘do not take that rematch’.

“We took it, [Simpson] did it and I’m so happy for him.”

A win for Verhoeven would have arguably surpassed James ‘Buster’ Douglas’ shock victory over Mike Tyson in 1990 as the greatest upset in boxing history.

Both corners were given the scores under the open scoring system after round eight, with the contest level. Verhoeven – who felt he should be ahead on the cards – says it took a significant mental toll as the fight moved into the championship rounds.

Coached by Peter Fury for more than a decade, Verhoeven is no stranger to elite-level sparring and preparation.

Fury has since said he was on the same flight back as referee Mark Lyson and that the official told him he did not hear the bell to signal the end of the 11th round.

Verhoeven himself says he did not hear the bell either, only the clapper around 10 seconds before the end of the round.

“I knew Usyk was going to push it and I knew we were already there, so I just got on the defence and tried to ride it out. And then the referee jumps in.

“He did not just take it from me, he took it from Usyk. If he had the chance to knock me out in the 12th round, he would have done it to settle the fight without debate.

“Pretty strange because in other championship fights I’ve been dropped multiple times earlier and still come back to win. I know that’s one of my superpowers. I can get hit, recover, and come back.

“There are so many opinions and things to say – like ‘what if in the 12th round he would have definitely knocked you out?’

“But no, we cannot look into the future. We cannot predict anything. If we listened to all the predictions I wouldn’t have gone past the first half of the fight, and I did.”