Usyk Stops Verhoeven in the 11th Round at the Pyramids

Fighting is fighting.

In front of the Giza Pyramids, heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk needed 11 rounds to separate his talent from kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven and retain the WBC heavyweight title by technical knockout on Saturday.

It was never an easy fight.

“I want to dedicate fight to Ukraine and Ukrainian soldiers,” said Usyk.

Though some keeping score had Usyk (25-0, 16 KOs) erroneously far behind on points, he kept his composure against kickboxing champion Verhoeven (1-1) who used his awkward fighting style to confuse and disrupt the Ukrainian fighter from gaining momentum at the outdoor stands of Giza.

“Rico you are an amazing fighter,” said Usyk to Verhoeven.

Usyk was a huge favorite to dismantle the kickboxing champion from the Netherlands, but Verhoeven had other ideas and constantly presented problems for the boxing champion who could not find the proper solution.

Uppercuts seemed to work for Usyk and were especially effective in the third round when the phantom blows dislodged the mouthpiece from Verhoeven. Though the Dutch fighter had success with rights, they never could stun the champion enough to hurt him.

This match was a gift from the WBC organization that allowed Verhoeven, the kickboxing world champion, to compete for the boxing title though he only had one pro boxing fight and was victorious. He defeated a winless boxer in Germany by second round knockout this past April.

Known as the “King of Kickboxing”, Verhoeven had developed recognition and was allowed to fight for the WBC world title. And fight he did.

Verhoeven constantly pressured Usyk who kept circling and looking for a chink in the kickboxer’s armor. The only weakness was protection against the uppercut.

The Dutch fighter’s ability to pressure Usyk kept fans on the edge who thought Verhoeven might be winning every round. That was a misconception because during the exchanges Usyk was connecting with uppercuts to the head and body while Verhoeven was hitting glove and shoulders.

The most surprising element in the fight was Verhoeven’s stamina.

As a kickboxer he was not accustomed to fighting 12 three-minute rounds. Somehow, he managed to match Usyk’s punch output and stay strong. But when Usyk unleashed a tremendous volley of blows in the 11th round, Verhoeven was floored. He got up weakly but was met by another onslaught of blows and referee Mark Lyson stopped the fight at 2:59 of the 11th round.

“Don’t stop it man, let me go out on my shield,” said Verhoeven. “I felt it was pretty close on the score cards.”

Usyk admitted it was a difficult fight but was confident that his boxing abilities would help him prevail.

“This fight was hard to prepare for. It was a good fight. I just box,” said Usyk about his ability to overcome Verhoeven.  “It was my right uppercut bomb. Thank you, God.”

Though Verhoeven was disappointed in the stoppage by the referee, he was content overall.

“I’m super proud of my performance here,” Verhoeven said.

 

Title Fights

Japan’s Mizuki Hiruta (11-0, 2 KOs) showed the rest of the world what only California and Japan have witnessed: a total fighter with speed, agility and staying power in defeating Australia’s Mai Soliman (10-2, 6 KOs) by unanimous decision.

Hiruta retains the WBO and Ring super flyweight titles.

“I made it. I’m so happy,” said Hiruta. “This is amazing. Like a dream.”

Known as “Mimi”, Hiruta used angles and speed to keep Soliman off balance and unable to unload her powerful right hand that had felled six previous opponents. But the nifty Hiruta was seldom in the same position for more than a few seconds.

After 10 rounds all three judges saw Hiruta the winner by unanimous decision 99-91, 98-92 (2x).

“I want to be a super star. I will keep these belts forever,” Hiruta shouted. “I owe everything to my team.”

Hamzah Sheeraz (23-0-1, 19 KOs) captured the WBO super middleweight world title by knockout over Germany’s Alem Begic (29-1-1) to finally prove he belongs in one of boxing’s most exciting divisions.

Sheeraz was coming off a big win last year against Edgar Berlanga that shocked the boxing world. In this fight he demonstrated it was not luck.

“In all honesty I did what I wanted. And it puts me on the world stage officially,” said Sheeraz.

After pressuring Begic with jabs in the first round, Sheeraz opened up the artillery with repeated left hooks that had Begic in a dazed state the entire second round until a left hook to the body ended the title match at 2:33 of the second round.

Sheeraz is the new WBO super middleweight titlist.

England’s Jack Catterall (33-2, 14 KOs) knocked down Uzbekhistan’s Shakhram Giyasov (17-1, 10 KOs) in the opening round with a left cross then cruised to victory behind the basic one-two combination from his left-handed stance to win the WBA welterweight title.

Catterall worked the jab to the body and head and every so-often connected with a straight left that kept Giyasov off-balance throughout their 12-round fight.  All three judges saw Catterall the winner by decision 119-108, 118-109, 116-111.

 

Prelims

A heavyweight title elimination fight saw Cuba’s Frank Sanchez (26-1, 19 KOs) turn out the lights of California’s Richard Torrez (14-1, 12 KOs) in a second round knockout. After a good start by Torrez in the opening round, Sanchez saw an opening in Torrez’s defense and unloaded a right uppercut that knocked out the Californian at 55 seconds into the second round for a knockout.

France’s Benjamin Tani (10-1, 3 KOs) overwhelmed the much taller Ukrainian Daniel Lapin (13-1, 5 KOs) with body shots and uppercuts to win by knockout in the fourth round of a light heavyweight title fight.

Tani was giving away six inches in height to Lapin (a southpaw), but opened up aggressively in the fourth round with three knockdowns of the Ukrainian fighter. Two were via body shots by Tani who seemed much stronger than Lapin. The end came at 1:35 of the fourth round.

 

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