Many within the boxing and MMA world are usually not happy with how this weekend’s heavyweight boxing bout between Oleksandr Usyk and Rico Verhoeven, on the Pyramids in Giza, Egypt, ended.
Regardless of being the far much less skilled boxer moving into the ring with boxing’s pound-for-pound king, Verhoeven surpassed expectations in opposition to “The Cat.”
“King of Kickboxing” regarded sharp all through the combat, landed the cleaner, heavier pictures throughout many of the rounds, and by no means allowed Usyk to dominate.
Nonetheless, within the eleventh spherical, the 39-year-old Ukrainian lastly shifted the momentum after dropping Rico Verhoeven with a large shot. Verhoeven managed to beat the depend and proceed, however Oleksandr Usyk instantly went all out looking for the end, and this time his arduous combo was sufficient to secure a TKO.
The ending, nevertheless, is questionable, and lots of are nonetheless debating whether or not the referee stopped the bout simply earlier than the ultimate bell in Spherical 11 or waved it off after the second final spherical was already over. Verhoeven has made it clear he’s sad with the choice and has already filed an enchantment.
After the bout, a number of boxers, MMA stars, and followers additionally identified that Rico Verhoeven was successful the combat and the ref shouldn’t have stopped it in Spherical 11, because the challenger dominated for almost all of the minutes and deserved to proceed combating. Others imagine the referee stopped the bout after the bell.
Jake Paul, Dillon Danis, and lots of others query the referee’s Choice In Oleksandr Usyk vs. Rico Verhoeven
Jake Paul posted on X:
“I really love boxing, and what occurred tonight severely makes me unhappy. The game and the followers deserve higher.”
Shakur Stevenson had related sentiments. He posted:
“I can’t imagine what I’m watching.”
Standard MMA web page Dovy on X wrote:
“Rewatching this once more, this have to be some form of corruption, how the f*ck does an skilled referee really cease this???”
Ariel Helwani posted:
“That’s an absolute disgraceful stoppage. Rico obtained jobbed. What the hell.”
Plinio Cruz wrote:
“What a really dangerous stoppage ! #ricovsusyk”
Derek Brunson additionally identified the untimely stoppage:
“Right this moment I witnessed a person get TKO after the bell 👀 #.boxing”
Dillon Danis confirmed assist for Rico Verhoeven:
“That was probably the most rigged sh*t I’ve ever seen. By no means watching boxing once more. What a fu*king joke of a sport. Rico Verhoeven simply schooled probably the greatest boxers on this planet and nonetheless obtained robbed. F*ck boxing, he gained that combat.”
Anthony Joshua additionally thinks the stoppage was too early.
Try his response under:
Nina-Marie Daniele lauded Oleksandr Usyk:
“USYK is the GOAT! WOW!”
Try just a few extra reactions under to the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Rico Verhoeven bout:
