Oleksandr Usyk vs. Rico Verhoeven | DAZN - May 23, 2026

[881073]

What it is proof of is that a World Class Professional Fighter is capable of holding their own in a Professional Fight.

It's also proof that most Boxing fans are pessimists who can't see what's happening even when they're looking right at it.

Which wouldn't happen in any other sport. Put a boxer in a kickboxing match and they'd get smoked.

Or a top Futsal player in the Premier League.

Boxing is the easiest sport to compete in. There's a reason YouTubers do boxing rather than tennis or golf

I've seen Boxers do well in Kickboxing before. Frans Botha tried his hand in Kickboxing when he was getting older, only had a 4-14 record, but he beat names like Jerome Le Banner and Peter Aerts which were 2 of the biggest names in the sport at the time.

On paper it's a victory, but in reality it was Peter Aerts who had a leg injury at the very first round.
It's not like Peter has been dizzy or in fighting problems for a second or whatever, he just had to go to hospital after his leg injury, Frans didn't have any problems either, it was just a very early stop of event.
The Jerome le Banner was a real victory, Jerome just didn't play it that smart.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Former Promoter Krassyuk Thinks Usyk Should Retire

Alexander Krassyuk guided the most significant stretches of Oleksandr Usyk’s career before amicably leaving his fellow Ukrainian’s side a month before Usyk knocked out Daniel Dubois last July.

After witnessing Usyk’s surprisingly shaky performance Saturday night against kickboxer Rico Verhoeven at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the head of K2 Promotions called for him to hang up the gloves.

“If I were there to advise him, his next opponent would be his family matters, maybe his business issues,” Krassyuk told Boxing King Media. “That’s what he has to take care of now. He has to stop. It’s better to leave one hour before than two minutes after. Unfortunately, this is the truth. It concerns not just boxing; it concerns every single thing in life.

“This is a very difficult decision for a man like Usyk, being at the top and being unbeaten. But think of the future. So, from the bottom of my heart, I wish him to retire at his prime and be remembered in ages as one of the most prominent and greatest fighters of all time.”

Ukraine’s Usyk (25-0, 16 KOs), The Ring, IBF, WBA and WBC heavyweight champion, will turn 40 in January. The former undisputed cruiserweight champ said heading into the Verhoeven fight that he had two more ring walks left in him after Saturday.

Krassyuk said Usyk survived the toughest fight of his career and only had him winning three rounds entering the 11th. One judge had Verhoeven winning, 96-94, and two had their fight even, 95-95 apiece, before Usyk dropped him and scored a dramatic and controversial stoppage with a second left in the penultimate round.

Usyk entered what was considered a mismatch as a 25-1 favorite over a kickboxing legend who had participated in only one professional boxing match.

“Usyk did not look fresh,” Krassyuk said. “He was at the highest weight [233 pounds] that I ever saw him, but did you see the trend from the previous fight with Dubois and this fight with Rico? The amount of steps he made in the ring significantly declined. He’s not taking the best advantage of his footwork in the ring. But he’s more concentrated on a harder punch, when his feet are loaded into the ground to get more power in the fist.

“Before this fight, people asked me for the prediction. I told them 100 fights out of 100, Usyk wins. But there is also a place for a miracle, the Lord’s will. Thank God this time the miracle did not take place. But the signal has to be detected, and once the signal is detected, the conclusions have to be made. After conclusions are made, the adjustments and improvements have to be done. Otherwise, the tendency, the vector it’s taking, is not a good sign for my brother Oleksandr.”

[Ruthless-RKO]

Oleksandr Usyk-Rico Verhoeven: Peter Fury confronts and then forgives the referee on flight home

Peter Fury, trainer of Rico Verhoeven and the orchestrator of the game plan that gave Oleksandr Usyk so much trouble in Egypt on Saturday night, was on the same plane back to England as the referee who stopped the fight, in the Ukrainian's favor, in the 11th round.

Verhoeven, 1-1 (1 KO), was given no chance of being competitive against the 25-0 (16 KOs) Usyk beforehand. So it came as a huge surprise when, after 10 rounds, the huge underdog looked to be on the brink of winning the fight to most observers.

Usyk upped the pressure, twisting back the head of his foe with an uppercut that scored a knockdown, then following up for five-or-so seconds until the bell sounded to end the 11 th and penultimate session. By then, Lyson had stopped the fight, 'rescuing' the Dutchman.

Talking to IFLTV, Fury explained that though the decision of Mark Lyson - the referee from Liverpool, England - was a source of annoyance he could also accept that it was merely a mistake.

"The best way to sort any dispute is going and asking the question, isn't it, to the person who's done it," Fury explained about his feelings when he spotted Lyson on the same flight home. "I said, 'You've made a mistake'. He said to me, and this is every important, 'Peter, I didn't hear the bell.'

'I said, 'Now that I believe,' because I didn't hear the bell, either... Obviously, it was all in the heat of the moment. Rico's gone down, Usyk has gone into finish it. He's [Lyson] behind Usyk and there's been no punches landed.

"So, I am going to call it a genuine mistake. That's all you can do; you can't accuse the fella of anything else. That would be ridiculous. There's no facts there and, I spoke to him, and, honestly, he said he'd never heard the bell.

"I thought we seen an excellent fight so we can talk and talk about glitches or what the referee should and shouldn't be doing. But one minute, fights are being stopped too soon, one minute, they're being stopped too late, and this is the problem when we have a third man [the referee] in the ring."

[gp.]

Usyk was so bad for most of this fight that it's almost as if he was paid to look bad.
I don't remember him landing any solid jabs, and let's face it, if there's one boxer in the world capable of landing a solid jab it's Usyk, especially on Rico!
Something very odd is going on.

You may be right. I have long being suspicious of these Mickey Mouse fights that the opponent is being carried. Some, like Jake Paul vs Ali much more blatantly than others.

I must have missed this one.

[Evander]

What were your scorecards

[gilgamesh]

What were your scorecards

I had it 97-93 for Verhoeven after 10 rounds. I thought he had swept rounds 6 thru 10. The 10th though was close.

Usyk obviously won the sh*t out of the 11th round though didn't he?

[881073]

What were your scorecards

I had Rico round 1,2,3 , then Usyk round 4,5,6 then Rico round 7,8,9,10 then Usyk 11 + knock down.
Rico still ahead 2 rounds despite the knockdown going into the 12th.

Rounds 6 and 7 were close.
Others have round 10 close, that one was dominated by Rico initially and dominated by Usyk later on, but overall, Rico landed more shots, more jabs and more power punches, so should be Rico's.

[gilgamesh]

What were your scorecards

I had Rico round 1,2,3 , then Usyk round 4,5,6 then Rico round 7,8,9,10 then Usyk 11 + knock down.
Rico still ahead 2 rounds despite the knockdown going into the 12th.

Rounds 6 and 7 were close.
Others have round 10 close, that one was dominated by Rico initially and dominated by Usyk later on, but overall, Rico landed more shots, more jabs and more power punches, so should be Rico's.

I had it like this

1. Rico
2. Usyk
3. Rico
4. Usyk
5. Usyk
6. Rico
7. Rico
8. Rico
9. Rico
10. Rico
11. Usyk 10-8 and the TKO win

Several rounds were close especially early.

[Evander]

What were your scorecards

I had Rico round 1,2,3 , then Usyk round 4,5,6 then Rico round 7,8,9,10 then Usyk 11 + knock down.
Rico still ahead 2 rounds despite the knockdown going into the 12th.

Rounds 6 and 7 were close.
Others have round 10 close, that one was dominated by Rico initially and dominated by Usyk later on, but overall, Rico landed more shots, more jabs and more power punches, so should be Rico's.

I had it like this

1. Rico
2. Usyk
3. Rico
4. Usyk
5. Usyk
6. Rico
7. Rico
8. Rico
9. Rico
10. Rico
11. Usyk 10-8 and the TKO win

Several rounds were close especially early.

7-3 going into the 11th