Rico Verhoeven nearly shocked the world on Saturday in Egypt. In a fight that almost no one gave him a chance to win, the iconic kickboxer nearly defeated lineal heavyweight boxing champion, Oleksandr Usyk.
Officially, Usyk won the fight via 11th-round TKO, but there are mounds of controversy around referee Mark Lyson’s decision to stop the bout in the penultimate round. Late in the 11th round, Usyk dropped Verhoeven with a vicious uppercut.
Verhoeven got to his feet, and was inexplicably given extra time to put his mouthpiece back in. Seconds later, just as the bell to end the round sounds, Lyson leaps in to call a halt to the fight. Blow-by-blow commentator Todd Grisham screams, “what are you doing?” And rightfully so. Verhoeven was in trouble, but there wasn’t enough time in the round for him to take any more damage.
Here is a look at the highlights of the fight, including the ending.
Key Facts at a Glance
- Result: Oleksandr Usyk def. Rico Verhoeven via 11th-round TKO (2:59)
- Title: WBC heavyweight championship (Usyk retains)
- Venue: Pyramids of Giza, Egypt — first boxing event ever held at the site
- Records: Usyk improves to 25-0 (16 KOs); Verhoeven falls to 1-1 (1 KO) as a pro boxer
- Scorecards at stoppage: 95-95, 95-95, 96-94 Verhoeven
- Referee: Mark Lyson
What Happened At The End Of Usyk Vs. Verhoeven?
Lyson made two huge errors. Verhoeven shouldn’t have been given additional time to put his mouthpiece back in his mouth. Second, there is no way you stop a fight with less than a second left in the 11th frame. You definitely shouldn’t be stopping a close championship fight in that situation.
If anything, Lyson should have let the round end and then assessed Verhoeven between the 11th and the 12th. This boils down to Lyson not knowing how much time was left in the round. Had he known, perhaps his decisions would have been different.
The sequence itself was brutal but brief. Usyk’s right uppercut dropped Verhoeven in the final 30 seconds, and after the mouthpiece delay, the champion unloaded a barrage before Lyson stepped in at 2:59 of the round, seemingly after the bell had sounded.
Verhoeven was respectful but disagreed afterward, telling DAZN, “I thought it was an early stoppage.” The numbers underscore how competitive it was, with Usyk landing 112 of 499 punches and Verhoeven connecting on 113 of 508.
What Did The Scorecards Say?
Two judges had the fight even at 95-95 through 10 rounds and one judge had Verhoeven ahead 96-94. What does this tell us? Obviously, Usyk won the 11th with the knockdown. Had Lyson not stopped the fight, through 11, Usyk would have been up 105-103 on two cards and the fighters would have been even at 104 on the third. The fight would have been up for grabs in the 12th, but Usyk would likely have had a major edge having just badly hurt Verhoeven in the 11th.
That math is the whole ballgame when people throw around the word “robbery.” This was not a case of a fighter building an insurmountable lead and having it erased by officiating.
It was a genuinely close fight that Usyk was, by the numbers, just starting to take control of at the exact moment it ended.
Was Rico Verhoeven Robbed?
Robbed of a win? No, he was technically losing at the point of the stoppage, and even if he’d gotten his wish to make it into the 12th round, he would have been down on the scorecards and on the wrong side of the momentum. However, he was robbed of a legitimate chance to turn the tables in the 12th. It seems like Usyk pours it on in the 12th and either gets the stoppage or earns a unanimous-decision win by taking the final frame 10-9. However, Verhoeven would have had at least a chance to lose by split decision or perhaps score his own knockdown or knockout..
That distinction is why analysts like Ariel Helwani called the ending a disgrace and compared the moment to Francis Ngannou’s stunning effort against Tyson Fury, where an outsider exceeded every expectation. The outrage is about the stolen opportunity, not a stolen decision.
For a man competing in just his second pro boxing match against the lineal champion, being denied those final three minutes is the real injustice here.
Will There Be A Usyk Vs. Verhoeven Rematch?
It seems like it will happen at some point, but Agit Kabayel has waited for his opportunity and he was on hand to faceoff with Usyk after the fight. It seems like he’ll be next. We will see if Verhoeven takes another boxing match against a contender. If he does, and he wins, there will be legitimate cries for him to get a rematch with Usyk.
The politics back this up. The WBC has ordered Kabayel (27-0) as Usyk’s mandatory challenger, and event chief Turki Alalshikh publicly framed it as Kabayel first, then a possible Verhoeven rematch. Usyk said he was open to running it back immediately, so the appetite exists on his end.
For me, a rematch only gains real momentum if Verhoeven proves Saturday wasn’t a one-off by beating a legitimate contender first. Do that, and the crossover spectacle becomes a rivalry worth sanctioning twice.
