The boxing world has been left stunned after one of the greatest fighters to ever step into the ring, Oleksandr Usyk, was pushed to his limit by a man with one professional boxing fight.
Usyk, a former undisputed cruiserweight and heavyweight champion, entered the bout as the WBC, WBA and IBF unified heavyweight titlist and was expected to stop kickboxer Rico Verhoeven without breaking a sweat.
But the Ukrainian was left in a dogfight, as Verhoeven took it up to him.
Almost the entire boxing world had the underdog well up on the scorecards heading into the 11th round.
Verhoeven looked to be winning that round as well until Usyk dropped him with a vicious uppercut.
There as controversy as the referee allowed Verhoeven to compose himself and to have his mouth guard put back in following the punch.
However, the fight was over moments later as he attempted to defend the late barrage from Usyk to close out the round.
But with one second left, the ref waived the fight off, declaring Usyk the winner by knockout, much to the dismay and confusion of everyone.
The decision was egregious, given Verhoeven was still defending himself, and the boxing world was quick to label it an absolute robbery, with everyone left stunned, and many declaring they were done with the sport.
“What are you doing referee? What are you doing referee? Are you kidding me?” American commentator Todd Grisham said.
“This is for the heavyweight championship of the world. I don’t believe it.”
While Darren Barker added: “The corner are going crazy. They are all shaking their heads. Every single one of his team.”
Verhoeven was left stunned and was still trying to find the right words post-fight.
“I thought it was an early stoppage. I believe the referee knows we are almost at the end of the round,” Verhoeven said.
“Let me go out on my shield or let the bell go.”
The reaction was far angrier online, with Jake Paul one of many to slam the officiating and call out what just happened.
“I mean that’s the most insane sh** I’ve ever seen,” Paul wrote on X.
“Rico winning every round and the moment the paid off ref sees to end it then he ends it. Are you kidding
“I’m the biggest Usyk fan but bro you lost that sh**. Shoutout to rico for beating his ass every round and getting jipped. Damnnnnnn.”
Multiple-time jiu jitsu and MMA world champion Dillon Danis was also left seeing red.
“That was the most rigged sh** I’ve ever seen. Never watching boxing again. What a f***ing joke of a sport,” he said.
“Rico Verhoeven just schooled one of the best boxers in the world and still got robbed. F*** boxing, he won that fight.”
Boxing fans were equally irate.
“Of course they called off that fight, they couldn’t let Usyk lose that. Disgusting robbery that, especially with the bell going,” another furious fan wrote.
“One of the most corrupt instances of officiating you’ll ever see between the judges and the referee. Usyk may have knocked him out in R12 but they weren’t taking any chances,” popular combat account caposa posted.
“An absolute travesty. What a f***ing farce.
“The boxing community will find ways to cope with what they just saw, that’s understandable. I’m a massive Usyk fan myself. That was an embarrassment.”
“The ref robbed Rico to save a decision loss for Usyk,” Blake Avignon added.
“That’s up there with one of the worst boxing stoppages I’ve ever seen,” MMA analyst Luke Thomas said.
The fury would only grow as post-fight it was revealed that going into the 11th round, two of the three judges had the fight tied on the scorecards.
On the official broadcast Mike Coppinger’s scorecard had it 98-92 heading into the 11th, as did most of the boxing world.
And fans were quick to hit out at the entire event.
“This makes me want to stop watching boxing… I had it 8-2 going into the 11th,” one commented on the scorecard.
“Everyone did. Now it looks like they where going to rob Rico either way. As someone who bet usyk by ko im happy but might not of been such a robbery in decades,” a second added.
“So Rico was gonna end up being robbed no matter what,” a third commented.
After establishing himself as one of the greatest kickboxers of all time, Verhoeven took to the boxing ring for only the second time, with his lone professional boxing match to date in 2014, a second-round knockout of Janos Finfera, a man who never won a professional fight.
If Verhoeven had won, he would have become the first fighter to ever win a boxing title in his second pro fight.
But that was never even thought of being a possibility.
Before the fighter’s made the walk former professional boxer Tony Bellew said: “If Rico Verhoeven wins tonight, it will be the greatest shock not just boxing has ever seen but sport has ever seen.”
“I can not explain the magnitude of what this would be. It is off the richter scale”
