Usyk Holds On to Heavyweight Titles Following Disputed Verhoeven Stoppage
Oleksandr Usyk gets through a major scare and then beats Rico Verhoeven by a controversial finish in a dramatic heavyweight title fight.
Oleksandr Usyk kept his world heavyweight titles after stopping Rico Verhoeven in the 11th round in Egypt, which caused a lot of controversy.
Verhoeven, who was only in his second professional fight, pushed Usyk the whole time, making it one of the toughest fights of the Ukrainian champion’s career.
Many people thought the fight would show the difference between elite boxing skills and crossover goals, but Verhoeven ended up being the aggressor for long stretches and gave the unbeaten heavyweight champion problems.
In the 11th round, Usyk finally got back in the fight by hitting a powerful left uppercut that knocked out the Dutch challenger.
Usyk’s brief follow-up attack in the final seconds of the round led to the fight’s cancellation, despite Verhoeven winning the count. This seemed like an unfair choice for the challenger.
The judges gave Verhoeven three scores of 95–95, 95–95, and 96–94 at the end of the fight.
“This fight was tough.” “It was a good fight,” Usyk said.
Usyk, who is 39 years old and has been a three-time undisputed cruiserweight and heavyweight king, won his 25th straight professional fight and is now undefeated.
Verhoeven, a famous kickboxer fighting professionally for only the second time, disagreed with the referee’s ruling and asked for a rematch.
“I begged the ref to let me walk out on my shield in the 12th.” “I thought the scores were pretty even,” Verhoeven said.
For Usyk, the fight was both a defense of his WBA “super” belt and the WBC heavyweight title.
But Verhoeven would not have been able to win the WBA title if he had caused an upset, and the IBF would have let the fight happen even though its belt wasn’t valid.
