{"id":700878,"date":"2026-05-28T22:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T22:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700878\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T22:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T22:09:10","slug":"rico-verhoeven-seeks-rematch-with-oleksandr-usyk-after-contentious-stoppage-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700878\/","title":{"rendered":"Rico Verhoeven seeks rematch with Oleksandr Usyk after contentious stoppage | Boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rico Verhoeven, the Dutch former kickboxer who has switched to boxing, wants an apology as well as a rematch, after being stopped one second before the end<\/a> of the penultimate round in a WBC title bout with unified world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk last Saturday.<\/p>\n

The stoppage was controversial, with Verhoeven feeling he could have continued and some replays suggesting the bell may have rung before the referee signalled the end of the fight \u2014 only Verhoeven\u2019s second since switching to boxing \u2014 at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.<\/p>\n

Scorecards published by The Ring magazine afterwards showed two of the three judges had the fight tied 95-95 going into the 11th of 12 rounds and the other had Verhoeven ahead 96-94.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I want] just an apology. What else can we do? I can\u2019t demand anything else,\u201d Verhoeven told the BBC on Thursday, adding that his team had lodged an appeal with the WBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cMistakes can be made because we\u2019re all human and that\u2019s OK. But all I\u2019m looking for actually is: \u2018Yeah, sorry guys, this could have gone differently \u2014 this is something we have to look at and hopefully this doesn\u2019t happen in the future.\u2019 That\u2019s it and then let\u2019s continue from there and get to the rematch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s Agit Kabayel is the WBC\u2019s mandatory challenger and Usyk could have to fight him first before any rematch with Verhoeven.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s see what pops up next,\u201d said Verhoeven. \u201cBut I have to be honest, it\u2019s got to be big. I feel like I\u2019m the uncrowned king.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rico Verhoeven, the Dutch former kickboxer who has switched to boxing, wants an apology as well as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-700878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700878","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=700878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}