Round-by-Round: Oleksandr Usyk vs. Rico Verhoeven - 23 May 2026

[margaret thatcher]

usyk should retire regardless of this fight, 40 year old injury plagued dude who already won the biggest fights that were out there for him. fighting on is just taking on lesser opponents than he already beat, at increasingly great risk

you even have dudes saying his legacy is degraded for them now, lol

[knockout]

Of course bad performances at the end of career will degrade legacy .

RJJ the best example of that .. imagine if he had retired as heavyweight champion

But instead he kept on fighting :(

[margaret thatcher]

Of course bad performances at the end of career will degrade legacy .

RJJ the best example of that .. imagine if he had retired as heavyweight champion

But instead he kept on fighting :(

ya, if roy retired as hw champ he would be held up in some semi god like status id bet.

struggling performances past prime shouldnt really downgrade how people rate them at their best, when we know they were handily able to beat much better fighters than they struggled with later on. if we rate every champ based on how they were at this age they would be considerably less impressive as well to be consistent. tyson was getting ko'd by kev mcbride and danny williams back to back for example. yet i read the other day, somehow usyk's performance here lowers his prime for prime standing with the likes of tyson. now, regardless of how you rate those two prime for prime, that logic makes no sense

but youre right, legacy downgrade will happen regardless when once formidable fighters start struggling past their prime, especially if they were previously undefeated and people previously had no reality of them losing.

[881073]

For the people who live under a rock and claim to think that Rico was about to lose his match against Usyk instead of KOing Usyk in the 12th.




Please look at 23:24 as well ^





Spoiler alert, Rico won all fights by KO.



To be clear, boxing is not a big sport in The Netherlands, this woman usually reports either local politics or big recent worldwide events or worldnews, she doesn't know anything about boxing.


https://beta.compuboxdata.com/round-stats/16498
Truth is, compubox rates very soft punches as hard punches as well very often and since Usyk was only capable of jabbing all night his stats look at least somewhat decent, despite still losing in most stats in most rounds.

Rico most likely would have KOed Usyk in the 12th round, but the referee saved him from that.

Rico himself somehow remains very calm, more calm then me for example.
Rico says a No Contest makes most sense to him, not a disqualification for Usyk for hitting after the bell.
It's good to hear what the referee said and it's also showing how much more well aware of the situation Rico was compared to Usyk, who essentially didn't give any interviews any more afterwards and sounded very very drunk and confused right after the referee gave him the win.

[margaret thatcher]

ya, the fight really looked to be turning in rico's favour. plus there's all those fights where usyk was knocked out in the late rounds

[THEBUTCH]

Who's this f*cking joker talking Double Dutch ?

Immediately prior to the knockdown Verhoeven's body language reeked of a fighter utterly exhausted. Rico was spent and Oleksander, while hardly fresh as a daisy himself, clearly had more in the tank to unleash.

[gilgamesh]

Of course bad performances at the end of career will degrade legacy .

RJJ the best example of that .. imagine if he had retired as heavyweight champion

But instead he kept on fighting :(

Usyk hasn't had a bad performance. The win over Rico Verhoeven is a boost to his legacy as far as I'm concerned. Not a knock against it.

[THEBUTCH]

Verhoeven is a huge 'effing unit and gave it everything he had. Usyk didn't look great by his standards but still ground out the win. This is what champions do

[KiwiRider]

Mags said it, the biggest shame would be Uysk losing his next fight- not because there is a better boxer out there, but because he got old.
He is set for life, and so are his kids.
It's a way better legacy to bow out undefeated undisputed champion of the world

[gilgamesh]

Mags said it, the biggest shame would be Uysk losing his next fight- not because there is a better boxer out there, but because he got old.
He is set for life, and so are his kids.
It's a way better legacy to bow out undefeated undisputed champion of the world

It's way better for your life to retire with 50 to 100 Million more dollars.

Your legacy doesn't really matter. In time all is forgotten.

In 200 years time, will anyone even remember there was a sport called Boxing or a Champion named Oleksandr Usyk? I doubt it honestly, but in his own lifetime will his life be affected dramatically by having Tens of Millions more dollars at his disposal?

[KiwiRider]

Mags said it, the biggest shame would be Uysk losing his next fight- not because there is a better boxer out there, but because he got old.
He is set for life, and so are his kids.
It's a way better legacy to bow out undefeated undisputed champion of the world

It's way better for your life to retire with 50 to 100 Million more dollars.

Your legacy doesn't really matter. In time all is forgotten.

In 200 years time, will anyone even remember there was a sport called Boxing or a Champion named Oleksandr Usyk? I doubt it honestly, but in his own lifetime will his life be affected dramatically by having Tens of Millions more dollars at his disposal?

He's already made over 100 million. How much is enough?
Ali regretted staying in too long, the last years of his life he couldn't really enjoy any of the money except to pay his carers.

[gilgamesh]

Mags said it, the biggest shame would be Uysk losing his next fight- not because there is a better boxer out there, but because he got old.
He is set for life, and so are his kids.
It's a way better legacy to bow out undefeated undisputed champion of the world

It's way better for your life to retire with 50 to 100 Million more dollars.

Your legacy doesn't really matter. In time all is forgotten.

In 200 years time, will anyone even remember there was a sport called Boxing or a Champion named Oleksandr Usyk? I doubt it honestly, but in his own lifetime will his life be affected dramatically by having Tens of Millions more dollars at his disposal?

He's already made over 100 million. How much is enough?
Ali regretted staying in too long, the last tears of his life he couldn't really enjoy any of the money except to pay his carers.

He may well have enough, and if he's satisfied with his career, and wants to call it a day. That's cool.

If he wants to fight on, and continue to do more. That's cool too.

I don't think it'd be a bad call either way no matter what he does. I also don't think if he fights on, and loses his title it's the end of the world or makes all of his career meaningless.

[coneye]

Father time catches us all , and it starts with ,being took to the limit with guys you would off handled easy a year or so before . So for me i would like to see him retire right now . Ok this guy was a BIG FIT STRONG TOUGH monster of a man , but the Usyk of old would of not got hit by has many punches he would of dazzled him with footwork and technicly tied him up hit him from angles , it just was,nt there now his next fight against a more conventional boxer ,Usyk may shine again but it does,nt alter the fact out of the ordinary he struggled his feet were not there , well at least his speed of feet .

I can understand Gili saying it was one bad fight no need but at the top level you need to be 100% or your always going to be in a war and that was not 100% Usyk , course he;s still got it and he/ll always have it a 70 year old Usyk will still demolish most 30 year olds but he will not demolish 30 year old boxers who train .

Unfortunatly its only Usyk who can decide , and i doubtt he will do the right thing and retire to enjoy his familly its not just being a world champ its hard to walk away from anything you enjoy , i can relate in other ways walking away from what i loved doing and so can most others .

[gilgamesh]

You're just assuming though that Usyk would've had an easier time with Rico before. Maybe if he would've fought him in 2023 it would've been a tough fight just the same.

[gregregegg]

You're just assuming though that Usyk would've had an easier time with Rico before. Maybe if he would've fought him in 2023 it would've been a tough fight just the same.

When I have to pick between the option of the best boxer in the world is naturally fading with age and not being in top shape/motivation at 39.

or the that the actual best boxer in the world has just never boxed befor… (ok 1x4 rounder)

I obviously can’t be certain… but, I’m putting my money on option 1…

[Kilburn]

Is it not possible that the amount of mobility required in order for Usyk to dominate Rico on the scorecards, hasn’t really been an option since his cruiserweight days?

I was watching a bit of the Chisora fight last week, and thought to myself that’s pretty much the only style that could beat Usyk - a come forward, don’t give a fook how tired I am sort of style.

With comparative fencing matches against AJ and Fury, and easy wins vs a bamboozled Dubois, this weakness was never going to be exploited. (I’m doubting myself ever so slightly because from memory Usyk looked pretty mobile in the Dubois rematch).

Anyway, Usyk outlasted Rico impressively even if he struggled with his style. I’m not convinced he has suddenly faded as a heavyweight. I hope the Kobayel fight happens next and I hope Usyk wins.

[Ruthless-RKO]

[Ruthless-RKO]

[joshj909]

So no admission of guilt and no wrongdoing by the ref?

There's always controversy and accusations when Fury's are involved in heavyweight title fight isn't there? The only one I can think of that wasn't was Tyson Vs Whyte.

[881073]

Essentially Teddy Atlas saying Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman should have been stopped at the 3rd round, that would have been better for Muhammad Ali.
Yea, that's not how a fair fight works lol.

At least the referee said he hasn't heard the bell when Peter Fury asked him about the situation.

I would love to see an interview with Usyk actually, or does he have to stay in hospital for a couple of weeks?

Rico is giving interview after interview going to TV station after TV station right now and knew exactly what happened, this while Usyk sounded really confused after the match.

[stujones]

I do wonder how much is AJ influencing Usyk as much as the other way around. Usyk in training looked a "beast". His arms have gotton so much bigger.

He didn't carry the weight well, but I don't think he took Rico lightly. He would have gassed if he had.

[mickey1975]

So no admission of guilt and no wrongdoing by the ref?

There's always controversy and accusations when Fury's are involved in heavyweight title fight isn't there? The only one I can think of that wasn't was Tyson Vs Whyte.

The one where Whyte accused Tyson of pushing him? The biggest controversy recently actually also involved and benefited Usyk. Dubois 1.

[joshj909]

So no admission of guilt and no wrongdoing by the ref?

There's always controversy and accusations when Fury's are involved in heavyweight title fight isn't there? The only one I can think of that wasn't was Tyson Vs Whyte.

The one where Whyte accused Tyson of pushing him? The biggest controversy recently actually also involved and benefited Usyk. Dubois 1.

Took it personally did you? We can include the Whyte push controversy if you like. The biggest controversy was when Tyson refused the rematch then fake retired after his fight with Wlad because he tested positive for steroids. There are others though (Wilder's weird excuses including the gloves), Chisora 3 (the spar that never should have happened), Usyk (standing count?), Ngannou (wasn't a title fight but it's a fight that never should have happened and then was a robbery), Hughie Vs Parker (shades of Ali?).

[mickey1975]

So no admission of guilt and no wrongdoing by the ref?

There's always controversy and accusations when Fury's are involved in heavyweight title fight isn't there? The only one I can think of that wasn't was Tyson Vs Whyte.

The one where Whyte accused Tyson of pushing him? The biggest controversy recently actually also involved and benefited Usyk. Dubois 1.

Took it personally did you? We can include the Whyte push controversy if you like. The biggest controversy was when Tyson refused the rematch then fake retired after his fight with Wlad because he tested positive for steroids. There are others though (Wilder's weird excuses including the gloves), Chisora 3 (the spar that never should have happened), Usyk (standing count?), Ngannou (wasn't a title fight but it's a fight that never should have happened and then was a robbery), Hughie Vs Parker (shades of Ali?).

What are you on about? Why would I take it personally? The biggest controversies in recent years in the heavyweight division were the two I've named. Less than three years apart involving and favouring Usyk.

[gilgamesh]

So no admission of guilt and no wrongdoing by the ref?

There's always controversy and accusations when Fury's are involved in heavyweight title fight isn't there? The only one I can think of that wasn't was Tyson Vs Whyte.

The one where Whyte accused Tyson of pushing him? The biggest controversy recently actually also involved and benefited Usyk. Dubois 1.

The only controversy in Usyk vs Dubois 1 came from Dubois whining about it though, and some people buying it. He landed a low blow, and Usyk got time to recover. Nothing controversial about that at all.