This past weekend (Sat., May 23, 2026) kickboxing legend, Rico Verhoeven, dragged pound-for-pound great and unified Heavyweight boxing champion, Oleksandr Usyk, into deep water during their big-man slugfest, which surprised many in Egypt.
For the majority of the fight, which was scheduled for 12 rounds, Verhoeven did the most damage, was the busier fighter and had “The Cat” flustered and flat-footed. While Usyk did have some shining moments, it was Verhoeven who controlled the majority of the bout
and was well on his way to winning a decision.
But, in the penultimate round, Usyk caught the towering striker with a nasty uppercut that sent him crashing to the canvas. Once he answered the standing eight count, the referee paused the action to allow Verhoeven to re-insert his mouthguard. It gave the wobbly Verhoeven valuable time to recover, but it also gave Usyk time to finish the job.
With 10 seconds remaining in the eleventh round, the Heavyweight champion piled on the punches, prompting the referee on duty to step in and put and end to the fight, turning out to be among the worst stoppages in recent memory (see it again here). While Usyk was landing, Verhoeven was doing his best to hang in — and he could’ve made it to the final frame if the overzealous official didn’t step in and ruin the bout.
To make matters worse, he stepped in after the bell sounded.
Would Usyk have finished the fight in the final frame? It’s possible, but we will never truly know. Regardless, Verhoeven at least deserved the opportunity after winning the fight up to that point. Having said that, the judges scorecards were revealed (see them here), which truly left many puzzled seeing as how two of the judges had it even with only one scoring it for Verhoeven after 10 rounds.
Indeed, it’s possible we could have seen some bad scoring that would have left fans equally upset as the stoppage did.
The kickboxing legend plans to appeal the loss; however, as we have seen in the past, trying to get a results in any combat sport overturned is an uphill battle; therefore, Verhoeven and his team shouldn’t be holding their collective breath.
Instead, Verhoeven should hopefully look forward to a potential rematch against the best big man in the sport — he deserves at least that much. During the post-fight interviews inside the ring, Rick Reeno, CEO of The Ring, took it upon himself to bring interim WBC Heavyweight champion, Agit Kabayel, into the ring and advised Usyk to consider facing him next. That moved didn’t sit too well with Turki Alalshikh, who was also front and center and quickly put an end to that notion by saying it simply wasn’t the time to consider that fight.
In fact, Alalshikh acknowledged that Verhoeven did, indeed, deserve an immediate rematch.
And that is the only move to make after what transpired in front of the Pyramids in Egypt (seriously), which was an amazing backdrop for this one-of-a-kind event. That said, many feel that the Ukrainian champion didn’t take the first fight all too serious, hence the reason for his poor showing in the earlier rounds. And that is really unfair considering Verhoeven’s performance (assuming that a dedicated and serious Usyk would steamroll Verhoeven in a rematch. That said, Verhoeven also now has a feel for what “The Cat” brings to the table, giving him his toughest test in some time so he, too, will make the proper adjustments should they ever run it back.
Would you expect anything different?
