![\"Ukraine's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AFP__20260524__B3VD3NT__v1__HighRes__BoxHeavyUsykVerhoeven-1779603910.jpg\")
Usyk was given a tough fight by Verhoeven [Khaled Desouki\/AFP]Shock averted<\/p>\nPublished On 24 May 202624 May 2026<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s unbeaten heavyweight world champion Oleksandr \u2060Usyk has stopped Dutch former kickboxer \u2060Rico Verhoeven with one second left in the penultimate round of a WBC title fight to avoid one of the greatest boxing upsets of all time.<\/p>\n
The \u201cGlory in Giza\u201d fight, held at the pyramids of Egypt on Saturday, was considered a mismatch, \u2060but Verhoeven, whose sole previous professional boxing fight was 12 years ago, tore up the script in mind-boggling fashion from the opening bell.<\/p>\n
It took until the fourth for Usyk to have a round that was clearly his, but the champion was unable to capitalise on it with the \u2060bigger and heavier Verhoeven still taking the fight to him.<\/p>\n
With Usyk tipping the scales heavier than ever before and looking strangely lethargic at times, the 39-year-old went into the penultimate round needing to pull something out of the bag to be sure of a win most had taken for granted.<\/p>\n
Scorecards published by The Ring magazine afterwards showed two of the three judges had the fight tied 95-95 going into the 11th of 12 rounds and \u200cthe other had Verhoeven ahead 96-94.<\/p>\n
The decisive moment came right at the end when Usyk dropped Verhoeven with a right uppercut and the Dutchman beat the 10 count but not the referee, who stepped in to wave off further punishment.<\/p>\n
The ring announcer timed the stoppage at two minutes and 59 seconds of round 11.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was an early stoppage, but in the end, it\u2019s not up to me,\u201d Verhoeven, 37, told DAZN. \u201cThe referee knows that we are almost at the end of the round, so let me go out on my shield or let the bell go.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you know, \u2026 I was already super thankful for the opportunity \u2060as well,\u201d he added while pitching for a rematch.<\/p>\n
Usyk was given a tough fight by Verhoeven [Khaled Desouki\/AFP]Shock averted<\/p>\n
Verhoeven was fighting only for the WBC belt with Usyk risking \u2060also the loss of his WBA and IBF ones, which would have been declared vacant titles had he been beaten.<\/p>\n
In the end, the 39-year-old Ukrainian extended his record to 25 unbeaten fights and retained all three titles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis fight was hard. It was a good fight. I was just boxing, my right uppercut, bang. Bang, bang, bang. Thank you, \u2060God,\u201d he said with Britain\u2019s former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and Hollywood action star Jason Statham in the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now in Ukraine, my people and my country \u2013 there is bombing. My people are sitting in bomb \u2060shelters. My family. My daughter sent me a message: \u2018Papa, I love you. You win. I\u2019m \u2060afraid.\u2019 I said, \u2018Oh my God.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Victory for Verhoeven would have been one of the biggest shocks in the sport\u2019s history, surpassing Mike Tyson\u2019s 1990 defeat by journeyman James \u201cBuster\u201d Douglas.<\/p>\n
Usyk, a 2012 Olympic champion and consummate professional, had been expected to wrap things up by the half-distance, at least in the estimation of some experts. Others expected an even earlier victory.<\/p>\n
Verhoeven \u200cdid his ring walk in the open-air arena as a pharaoh, flanked by others holding flaming torches with the pyramids illuminated behind them.<\/p>\n
Usyk adopted a more gladiatorial look, wearing a golden helmet and the outfit of a Roman centurion as fireworks lit up the night \u200csky. \u200cBut the fight was one of his toughest, and he struggled to deal with an awkward opponent who hit hard and showed few signs of crumbling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you so much, Rico. You are an amazing fighter,\u201d Usyk said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published On 24 May 202624 May 2026 Ukraine\u2019s unbeaten heavyweight world champion Oleksandr \u2060Usyk has stopped Dutch former…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":818670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[21354,9249,440,3097,50,1926,62,273,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-818669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-boxing","tag-egypt","tag-europe","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116628774381959377","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}