At the foot of the Pyramids in Giza, in a fight that began after 1am Saturday night, the scorecards read 95-95, 95-95 and 96-94 to Verhoeven, reports Alaa Abdel-Ghani.
But Ukrainian Usyk saved his day, and the WBC title, when he landed a vicious left uppercut in the final 30 seconds of the 11th round that sent the Dutchman to the canvas.
Verhoeven beat the count, but rose unsteady. A follow-up Usyk flurry in the closing seconds of the round, not all of which landed, prompted the referee Mark Lyson to step in and stop the contest at 2:59, a decision that BBC described as having looked extremely harsh on the challenger. Verhoeven was still defending himself when the fight was halted.
Verhoeven and his corner team vehemently protested the stoppage. “What are you doing, referee? What are you doing? Are you kidding me? This is for the heavyweight championship of the world,” commentator Todd Grisham said, reacting to the stoppage.
“I wanted the referee to let me go out on my shield or let me go in the 12th. I felt we were pretty even on the scorecards,” Verhoeven said. “I am super proud of my performance, and hopefully the boxing world embraces me as a boxer. I am amazingly happy to be here,” Verhoeven said.
Verhoeven, 37, described it as an “early stoppage” and called for a rematch but said it was up to Usyk.
“This fight was hard. It was a good fight,” Usyk said.
Usyk reiterated before the match that he planned to box two more times after this fight.
On Saturday, Usyk scaled 106kg. Verhoeven weighed in at 117kg.
Before the fight, Usyk, 39, had yet to taste defeat in 24 fights as a professional and had won 15 of those contests inside the distance.
Verhoeven had only competed once professionally as a boxer, claiming a second-round knockout win over Janos Finfera in 2014.
But he is regarded as one of the greats of the kickboxing world, having reigned as the Glory promotion’s heavyweight champion for 11 years and made 13 successful defences.
A win for Verhoeven would have been one of boxing’s biggest ever upsets but he only could have won the WBC belt, while the WBA and IBF titles would have become vacant if Usyk had lost because Verhoeven is not ranked with any sanctioning body.
Again, BBC said it was highly unusual for the WBC to allow the Dutchman to fight for the belt. Although few question Verhoeven’s standing in combat sports, many boxing fans have questioned how he has been handed a world title shot before contenders who have spent years climbing the rankings.
There have been plenty of stars to cross the divide between combat sports, only to find boxing is not their game.
Francis Ngannou and Conor McGregor are notable examples of losing MMA fighters but Verhoeven was close to breaking the trend.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 28 May, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
Short link: