The referee did enough to stop the fight in the 11th round before the bell sounded in Usyk and Verhoeven’s fight.

The court heard that Leeson said in no uncertain terms: “I have decided to stop the competition … I have seen enough.”

The commission also emphasized how the referee has the power to end the contest whenever they want.

“According to the rules, the referee is the sole arbiter of the competition and has full and unrestricted right to stop the competition at any time,” he said.

“There is no difference in jurisdiction or effect between a stoppage that occurs during a round and a stoppage that occurs in the middle of a round or during a break.”

The time difference noted by official timekeeper Brad Williams does not meet the commission’s threshold for overturning the referee’s mandatory decision.

The panel accepted William’s evidence, but although the physical storm had occurred partially after the bell, this was, at a high level, a procedural time difference. It does not involve bad faith, corruption, fraud or arbitrary action.

The scorecards at the end of the fight read 95-95, 95-95 and 96-94 for kickboxing legend Verhoeven.

Medical evidence given by Dr. Neil Scott confirmed that Verhoeven was medically stable after his second professional boxing bout and did not affect the referee’s real-time safety assessment.

“There is no evidence of bad faith, malice, corruption, fraud, bias or dishonesty on the part of Judge Mark Leeson,” the commission added.

Verhoeven said the fans were denied a 12th round between himself and unified world heavyweight champion Usyk and there should be an immediate rematch.