{"id":604568,"date":"2026-05-26T10:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T10:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/604568\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T10:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T10:15:08","slug":"carl-froch-sums-up-oleksandr-usyks-performance-against-rico-verhoeven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/604568\/","title":{"rendered":"Carl Froch sums up Oleksandr Usyk’s performance against Rico Verhoeven"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carl Froch has questioned whether Oleksandr Usyk can even compete with the likes of Agit Kabayel, let alone beat them, following his sub-par performance against Rico Verhoeven.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian was made to look somewhat ordinary, at least for his typically high standards, as he fiddled his way to an 11th-round finish over Verhoeven<\/a> last Saturday.<\/p>\n

Prior to their contest, many had predicted that Usyk would dispatch his opponent within the first few rounds, all the while showing his superior class and experience.<\/p>\n

This, after all, was Verhoeven\u2019s second-ever professional boxing match, with his first arriving via a second-round stoppage of Janos Finfera \u2013 who retired with a 0-6 record \u2013 in 2014.<\/p>\n

As it happened, though, the Dutch kickboxer produced a far more successful performance than many had suspected, with one judge having it 96-94 in his favour at the time of the stoppage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The unified heavyewight champion then managed to floor his man in round 11, before referee Mark Lyson drew a controversial halt at the sound of the bell.<\/p>\n

This came shortly after Verhoeven had regained his footing, with Usyk ultimately retaining his WBC heavyweight title and, in turn, maintaining his lofty position on the world stage.<\/p>\n

While sharing an immediate reaction on his YouTube channel<\/a>, however, Hall of Famer Froch suggested that the 39-year-old should seriously consider retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHas Usyk got old overnight? Is he looking a bit slow? Is his body looking a bit\u2026 I don\u2019t know \u2013 he looks a bit spread around the middle.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsyk\u2019s past his best. I\u2019d hate to see Usyk lose, and get beat, because of age. He\u2019s had such a fantastic career. He\u2019s so good \u2013 one of the best to ever do it \u2013 and for him to lose because he shouldn\u2019t be fighting anymore\u2026 it would be a tragedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was touch-and-go in there [against Verhoeven] and I was thinking, \u2018Professional boxing\u2019s on the line \u2013 not just Usyk\u2019s career\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usyk should soon be ordered to defend his title against WBC \u2018interim\u2019 champion Kabayel, who will hope to expose any signs of deterioration if they end up squaring off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carl Froch has questioned whether Oleksandr Usyk can even compete with the likes of Agit Kabayel, let alone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-604568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}