Oleksandr Usyk stops Rico Verhoeven to defend WBC heavyweight title | Boxing News

Oleksandr Usyk defended his WBC heavyweight title but only after surviving an almighty scare with an 11th-round stoppage of kickboxer Rico Verhoeven in Giza.

Verhoeven came within touching distance of staging one of boxing’s greatest upsets in just his second professional bout, bullying and overpowering an off‑colour Usyk.

The unbeaten unified heavyweight champion trailed on the scorecards heading into the penultimate round but landed a crisp right uppercut to transform the complexion of the contest.

It sent the towering Verhoeven to the canvas for the first time before a barrage of punches from Usyk saw the referee controversially wave it off at 2:59 seconds of round 11.

Usyk, 39, was not moving freely and was caught several times as the pace slowed into the middle rounds.

He came under pressure on the ropes as Verhoeven threatened the upset, catching Usyk with a strong right hand in the eighth before the Ukrainian responded with a left late in the round.

Verhoeven again forced Usyk back onto the ropes in the ninth round and kept up the pressure in the 10th, but Usyk survived and delivered the decisive blows late in the 11th round.

‘Let me go out on my shield’

Speaking on DAZN, Verhoeven felt the fight was stopped prematurely.

“I thought it was an early stoppage,” he said. “The referee knows we are almost at the end of the round.

“Either let me go out on my shield, let the bell go, or let us go out in the 12th. It was so close. I thought we were pretty equal on the scorecards.”

Bellew: ‘First time Usyk has been outworked’

Former cruiserweight world champion Tony Bellew believes a rematch is in order after Verhoeven came within seconds of stunning the boxing world.

“It’s the only time in his whole career I’ve seen Usyk outworked on a consistent basis,” he said. “At the back end of each round, he was losing and getting out landed.

“Verhoeven has come out of this a winner. His hand might not have been raised but given what we expected, he just nearly sprung the biggest surprise boxing has ever seen.

“We’ll never know whether Verhoeven would have made it out for round 12 so we should probably do it again. It’s the least that boy deserves after the performance he’s just put in.”