Boxing is gonna boxing.
Pound-for-pound Heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk retained his WBA, WBC, and The Ring titles yesterday (Sat., May 23, 2026) with a hugely controversial 11th-round TKO stoppage victory over kickboxing superstar Rico Verhoeven in front of the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo, Egypt (watch highlights).
And the official scorecards only added more fuel to the fire.
At the end of 10 completed rounds, judges Fabian Guggenheim and Manuel Oliver Palomo both had the fight dead even at
95-95, while judge Pasquale Procopio scored it 96-94 for Verhoeven. (We had it 96-94 Rico ourselves.)
Check out the scorecards below:
While Usyk technically was not leading on a single scorecard heading into Round 11, the undefeated Ukrainian champion finally started taking over during the championship rounds after struggling for large portions of the fight.
Verhoeven — making his high-profile return to professional boxing after years of dominating GLORY Kickboxing — shocked a ton of people by not only surviving against one of the greatest heavyweights of this era, but arguably outworking him through the first 10 rounds.
The Dutch giant used his jab, awkward clinch work and sheer size to disrupt Usyk’s rhythm throughout the fight, leaving many fans stunned that the kickboxer was having legitimate success against the pound-for-pound boxing king.
Then came the controversial ending.
Usyk hurt Verhoeven along the ropes and unleashed a barrage of punches, prompting the referee to jump in and stop the fight midway through the 11th round.
Verhoeven immediately protested the stoppage while the crowd inside the Pyramids erupted in confusion.
Still, had the fight continued to the scorecards after a knockdown-heavy 11th round, Usyk likely would have swung momentum heavily in his favor. Assuming judges scored the round 10-8 for the champion, he probably would have entered the final round leading 105-103 on at least two scorecards.
Of course, that does not really matter now.
For complete ‘Usyk vs. Verhoeven’ results, coverage, and highlights click HERE.
