Usyk survives the upset, stops Verhoeven in round 11 at the Pyramids of Giza
Usyk survived. But for ten rounds, Rico Verhoeven made the unified heavyweight champion look like he might not.
Oleksandr Usyk lands a straight right hand en route to an 11th-round TKO victory over Rico Verhoeven to retain the WBC and Ring Magazine heavyweight titles at the Pyramids of Giza on Saturday. GIZA, Egypt — Nobody came to the Pyramids of Giza expecting to see Oleksandr Usyk get outworked. But for ten rounds on Saturday night, that is exactly what happened.
Rico Verhoeven, the greatest kickboxer of his generation and a man with exactly one professional boxing match on his record heading in, came ready to fight. More than ready. He came to take the heavyweight title.
In the end, Usyk retained his WBA, WBC, and Ring Magazine heavyweight titles with a TKO stoppage at 2:59 of the 11th round, the referee waving it off with seconds remaining after Usyk dropped Verhoeven with a right uppercut and immediately swarmed him. But the scorecards told a more complicated story. Through ten rounds, at least one prominent ringside scorer had the Dutch challenger ahead.
On the DAZN broadcast, open scoring had Verhoeven leading heading into the championship rounds. This was not the coronation anyone expected. Verhoeven came out aggressive in round one, something the broadcast noted was completely out of character from his kickboxing style.