Oleksandr Usyk defended his WBC heavyweight title however solely after surviving an almighty scare with an Eleventh-round stoppage of kickboxer Rico Verhoeven in Giza.
Verhoeven got here inside touching distance of staging considered one of boxing’s best upsets in simply his second skilled bout, bullying and overpowering an off‑color Usyk.
The unbeaten unified heavyweight champion trailed on the scorecards heading into the penultimate spherical however landed a crisp proper uppercut to remodel the complexion of the competition.
It despatched the towering Verhoeven to the canvas for the primary time earlier than a barrage of punches from Usyk noticed the referee controversially wave it off at 2:59 seconds of spherical 11.
Usyk, 39, was not shifting freely and was caught a number of instances because the tempo slowed into the center rounds.
He got here underneath strain on the ropes as Verhoeven threatened the upset, catching Usyk with a robust proper hand within the eighth earlier than the Ukrainian responded with a left late within the spherical.
Verhoeven once more pressured Usyk again onto the ropes within the ninth spherical and saved up the strain within the tenth, however Usyk survived and delivered the decisive blows late within the Eleventh spherical.
‘Let me exit on my protect’
Talking on DAZN, Verhoeven felt the combat was stopped prematurely.
“I thought it was an early stoppage,” he stated. “The referee knows we are almost at the end of the round.
“Both let me exit on my protect, let the bell go, or allow us to exit within the twelfth. It was so shut. I assumed we have been fairly equal on the scorecards.”
‘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 is the one time in his complete profession I’ve seen Usyk outworked on a constant foundation,” he said. “On the again finish of every spherical, he was dropping and getting out landed.
“Rico 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 by no means know whether or not Verhoeven would have made it out for spherical 12 so we should always in all probability do it once more. It is the least that boy deserves after the efficiency he is simply put in.”
Sheeraz, Catterall declare world titles
Hamzah Sheeraz captured his maiden world title with a devastating second‑spherical stoppage of beforehand unbeaten Alem Begic of their WBO tremendous‑middleweight title combat.
It took barely two rounds for Sheeraz’s bodily dominance to overwhelm the German, who didn’t beat the depend after being dropped by a sickening physique shot.
Jack Catterall will get a shot on the WBA welterweight world title after securing a large factors win over Shakhram Giyasov.
The Chorley fighter scored a primary‑spherical knockdown and managed the competition all through, claiming the WBA ‘common’ welterweight belt and incomes a compulsory shot at WBA ‘tremendous’ champion Rolando Romero.
The combat was scored 118-109, 119-108 and 116-111 in Catterall’s favour.
