{"id":691446,"date":"2026-05-24T12:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T12:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/691446\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T12:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T12:13:08","slug":"usyk-vs-rico-scorecards-spark-huge-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/691446\/","title":{"rendered":"Usyk vs. Rico scorecards spark huge controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Pound-for-pound Heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk retained his WBA, WBC, and The Ring titles yesterday (Sat., May 23, 2026) with a hugely controversial 11th-round TKO stoppage victory over kickboxing superstar Rico Verhoeven in front of the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo, Egypt (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/boxing\/445725\/highlights-oleksandr-usyk-survives-gritty-rico-verhoeven-horrible-stoppage-tarnishes-late-tko-win-video\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">And the official scorecards only added more fuel to the fire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">At the end of 10 completed rounds, judges Fabian Guggenheim and Manuel Oliver Palomo both had the fight dead even at 95-95, while judge Pasquale Procopio scored it 96-94 for Verhoeven. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/boxing\/445120\/oleksandr-usyk-vs-rico-verhoeven-live-streaming-results-video-highlights\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">We had it 96-94 Rico ourselves<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Check out the scorecards below:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">While Usyk technically was not leading on a single scorecard heading into Round 11, the undefeated Ukrainian champion finally started taking over during the championship rounds after struggling for large portions of the fight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Verhoeven \u2014 making his high-profile return to professional boxing after years of dominating GLORY Kickboxing \u2014 shocked a ton of people by not only surviving against one of the greatest heavyweights of this era, but arguably outworking him through the first 10 rounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Dutch giant used his jab, awkward clinch work and sheer size to disrupt Usyk\u2019s rhythm throughout the fight, leaving many fans stunned that the kickboxer was having legitimate success against the pound-for-pound boxing king.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Then came the controversial ending.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Usyk hurt Verhoeven along the ropes and unleashed a barrage of punches, prompting the referee to jump in and stop the fight midway through the 11th round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Verhoeven immediately protested the stoppage while the crowd inside the Pyramids erupted in confusion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Still, had the fight continued to the scorecards after a knockdown-heavy 11th round, Usyk likely would have swung momentum heavily in his favor. Assuming judges scored the round 10-8 for the champion, he probably would have entered the final round leading 105-103 on at least two scorecards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Of course, that does not really matter now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">For complete \u2018Usyk vs. Verhoeven\u2019 results, coverage, and highlights click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/boxing\/445120\/oleksandr-usyk-vs-rico-verhoeven-live-streaming-results-video-highlights\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pound-for-pound Heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk retained his WBA, WBC, and The Ring titles yesterday (Sat., May 23,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,43957,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-691446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing-news-results","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}