{"id":691273,"date":"2026-05-24T20:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/691273\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:29:13","slug":"verhoeven-ready-to-begin-boxing-chapter-after-surprising-usyk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/691273\/","title":{"rendered":"Verhoeven ready to begin boxing chapter\u00a0after surprising Usyk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>But the former kickboxing champion nearly pulled off the improbable before <a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringmagazine.com\/news\/usyk-avoids-monumental-upset-stops-tricky-verhoeven-in-11th-3JL3hXnwXN8dQbq2bGZw8D\">getting controversially stopped with a second left in the 11th round<\/a> on Saturday.At the time of stoppage, <a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringmagazine.com\/fighters\/6cA86xhndMVqg1Wyf84bM9\">Verhoeven<\/a> was up 96-94 on one scorecard and tied 95-95 on the other two. Usyk\u2019s dominant 11th featured a knockdown in the final seconds that would have forced the reeling Verhoeven to score at least a knockdown of his own for a 10-8 round so that he wouldn\u2019t have lost on the cards. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI heard the 10-second warning and I was like, \u2018Keep slipping and sliding&#8217; to try and get through it and recover and fight for the 12th,\u201d Verhoeven told IFL. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought maybe after the knockdown, we were even on the scorecards. I thought at least we get to fight until the end, even better for the fans. But I didn&#8217;t get the opportunity to shock the world, the referee thought differently.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Despite the defeat, Verhoeven surprised the combat sports world and gave a solid account of himself against <a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringmagazine.com\/fighters\/oleksandr-usyk-5mLRBwodsK5tf2Rb5H6yt6\">Usyk<\/a> (26-0, 15 KOs), The Ring, IBF, WBA and WBC heavyweight champion and The Ring\u2019s No. 2-pound-for-pound fighter. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don&#8217;t care that the people didn&#8217;t know, but I knew we had a good shot versus this guy,\u201d said Verhoeven. \u201cI showed that I can fight and I can box, so I am ready for anybody \u2026 Maybe I didn&#8217;t hurt him, but I definitely surprised him with the angles I took to him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Verhoeven (1-1, 1 KO), a 37-year-old from The Netherlands, certainly earned more shots in the squared circle. With his strong performance, he plans on seizing untapped opportunities entering the next chapter of his fighting career. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just want the biggest fights,\u201d said Verhoeven. \u201cThe kickboxing chapter has closed. It&#8217;s a new chapter now \u2014 the boxing chapter.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Manouk Akopyan is The Ring\u2019s lead writer. Follow him on <a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ManoukAkopyan\">X<\/a> and <a class=\"underline text-text-primary font-medium hover:text-blue-70 transition-colors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/manoukakopyan\/\">Instagram<\/a>: @ManoukAkopyan<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But the former kickboxing champion nearly pulled off the improbable before getting controversially stopped with a second left&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[72640,703,184736,711,49,48,212705,82,1134],"class_list":["post-691273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-object-object","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-articles","tag-boxing-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-featured-article","tag-sports","tag-the-ring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}