Oleksandr Usyk got the win over Rico Verhoeven, but it did not happen the way almost anyone thought it would, and it certainly wasn’t expected to have this much controversy.
Usyk (25-0, 16 KO) stopped Verhoeven (1-1, 1 KO) at 2:59 of the 11th round when referee Mark Lyson made the decision to step in and call a halt to the fight. Rico had just been dropped, having done exceptionally well for the entire fight until then, and was on unsteady legs. But he was allowed to continue.
Usyk, 39, did what he
should have done. He pounced on the wobbly Verhoeven. And the shots were coming in fast and furious. But the stoppage coming with one second remaining in the penultimate round, with the story of the night clearly being that Verhoeven had done miles better than anyone anticipated and may have even been winning the fight — that’s going to irk a lot of people, and it clearly already has.
All signs pointed to Usyk likely getting a stoppage in the 12th and final round. He’d struggled all night to deal with the unusual angles and rhythms of Verhoeven, who landed a lot more clean shots on Usyk than we usually see, and had demonstrated unbelievable cardio, constantly moving throughout the entire bout but in an offense-first manner.
Usyk finally landed the uppercut that seemed like it could be his main weapon against Verhoeven’s odd, somewhat hunched-over stance, and he did put Rico down. But this sort of stoppage has always bothered fight fans, and it always will. This is no exception.
With the win, Usyk retains his WBC heavyweight title, which was the only one of his three belts on the line in the fight. The WBA and IBF belts will also stay with Usyk; had he lost, they would have been vacated.
The most obvious thing, and this will also be taken cynically — and understandably so — by longtime fight fans would be a rematch between these two by the end of 2026. It’s going to be worth more money than it was this time. It will have a lot more going for it promotionally, because a lot of people are going to feel Verhoeven got the shaft, instead of this time coming in, almost no one felt he had any legitimate chance to win.
What did you think of the stoppage?
