Rico Verhoeven walked out at the Pyramids of Giza as an underdog, fighting in only his second pro boxing match. For the first ten rounds, the GLORY kickboxing champ completely showed his guts against the undefeated Oleksandr Usyk.
Heading into the eleventh, one judge actually had Verhoeven up 96-94, while the other two had it dead even at 95-95. Then everything fell apart in Round 11 after Usyk caught Verhoeven with a vicious right uppercut to score the late-round knockdown.
Verhoeven, however, managed to beat the count and got his mouthpiece back in. But the moment he stepped back to the ropes, Usyk didn’t waste a second to show him what an undefeated boxer looks like.
The 37-year-old fighter stayed on his feet and tried to punch back, but referee Mark Lyson waved it off with one second remaining in the round. And controversy erupted right away because of the early stoppage. Even Verhoeven thinks he got robbed.
Rico Verhoeven Confirms Appeal Plans After Reviewing Ringside Footage
After reviewing the footage circulating on social media, he told Boxing News that the stoppage came at the worst possible moment. “To be completely honest, I just saw the end because of all the comments I was reading. They stopped the fight after the bell,” Verhoeven said.
He floated two potential outcomes from an appeal — either changing the result to a no-contest or sending it directly to the scorecards. “I think if we go to the scorecards, I was ahead,” he added.
And he definitely wasn’t thinking alone that way. Clips posted after the fight clearly showed the referee stepping in after the bell had already rung, giving his team a legitimate factual basis to challenge Lyson’s controversial call.
High-profile names like Francis Ngannou and Tom Aspinall quickly went online to question the finish, while Eddie Hearn called the stoppage early. After such a frustrating finish, Rico didn’t hide his feelings about the referee’s role in the chaos.
He demanded accountability from Lyson, saying, “Of course, mistakes can be made but looking back at it, the referee should admit his mistake.”
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The timing of the stoppage is genuinely questionable but the math works against Verhoeven on the scorecards argument.
Even if Round 11 were scored rather than stopped, all three judges would have given Usyk a 10-8 round due to the knockdown, leaving one card even and two in Usyk’s favor, making it a majority decision win for Usyk anyway.
Outside of the numbers, boxing commissions rarely overturn referee stoppages. The WBC and other sanctioning bodies rarely alter results unless there is clear proof of corruption or broken rules. So, this controversial early stoppage falls into a gray area.
On top of that, a rematch is very much impossible as current signs show Usyk heading toward a mandatory WBC title defense against the unbeaten Agit Kabayel. Verhoeven proved he can compete with the best boxers in the world. Winning this appeal, however, remains an uphill battle with the odds heavily against him.
