The referee did not think Verhoeven was saved by the bell.
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| The referee steps in to stop the Oleksandr Usyk-Rico Verhoeven fight in Egypt. | Photo by Mohamed Hossam/Getty Images |
Oleksandr Usyk and Rico Verhoeven faced off on Saturday in Egypt in front of the pyramids of Giza. Usyk, the WBA, WBC and IBF heavyweight champion, took on Verhoeven, a kickboxer by trade, in a match that was pure spectacle and the result confirmed it.
While Verhoeven was only taking part in his second career boxing match against Usyk, who came into the bout a perfect 24-0 in his career, the result was very much up in the air as the fighters headed into the later rounds. Or at least that's why many people had observed before a controversial stoppage ended the fight after 11 rounds. And then the scorecards only raised more questions.
First, let's take a look at the final moments of the fight when referee Mark Lyson waved off the fight after the bell. As you can see, Usyk was hitting Verhoeven as the bell rang and kept going and that's when the referee stepped in. The official result goes down as a TKO with one second left in the 11th round.
— Combat Casuals (@Clips4Casuals) May 23, 2026
What made the stoppage look even worse was the fact that Verhoeven was very much in the fight on the official scorecards. Two judges had the fight even and Verhoeven was up on the third card. Usyk was approximately three minutes away taking the first blemish on his boxing record by way of a decision loss or maybe a draw.
Here are the scorecards for Usyk x Rico after 10 rounds.
Two judges had it even, one had Rico up a round. pic.twitter.com/1bJFlFFaBT
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 23, 2026
Who knows what would have happened if the referee hadn't stepped in.
Verhoeven came into this fight with one boxing match on his résumé which took place back in 2014. The silver lining for Verhoeven here, besides holding his own against the heavyweight champion, is that he couldn't have won any of Usyk's belts anyway. So now he's 66-10 as a kickboxing champion and he's made a name for himself as a boxer.
Francis Ngannou Reacts
Francis Ngannou, who is coming off a first round knock out victory on last weekend's Ronda Rousey-Gina Carano card, commiserated with Verhoeven on social media saying, "Outsiders will never win, trust me I know, but Rico was the winner tonight. Period."
Ngannou, the former UFC heavyweight champion, had boxing matches against Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury over the last few years. While he was knocked out by Joshua, he went the distance with Fury, who was the WBC champion at the time and lost by split decision. After beating Ngannou, Fury went on to lose back-to-back fights to Usyk. Those were the first and second losses of Fury's career.
Usyk and Verhoeven Ring Walk
While the fight had a controversial finish, that shouldn't take away from how cool a scene it was in Egypt on Saturday in front of one of the Seven Wonders of the World. They made sure to use the pyramids in their ring walks and it was undeinably awesome-looking
.A number of boxers including Canelo Álvarez, Terrence Crawford, Anthony Joshua, Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney were all in attendance for the fight. As was Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. You really might see a celebrity anywhere this weekend.
- Stephen Douglas
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