{"id":613834,"date":"2026-05-31T15:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/613834\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T15:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:03:13","slug":"rico-verhoeven-gives-honest-verdict-on-oleksandr-usyks-punching-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/613834\/","title":{"rendered":"Rico Verhoeven Gives Honest Verdict on Oleksandr Usyk’s Punching Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dutch kickboxing icon Rico Verhoeven shocked the world with his extraordinary display against unified world heavyweight boxing<\/a> champion, Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> last weekend, atop a Riyadh Season card DAZN streamed live from the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.<\/p>\n

“Everybody was shocked,” Verhoeven exclusively told GIVEMESPORT just days after his competitive performance. The 37-year-old was cruelly stopped on his feet, with the referee Mark Lyson waving the contest off after the 11th round, even after Verhoeven had seemingly been hit after the bell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though Usyk won the fight itself<\/a>, advancing his pro record to 25-0 (16 KOs), it was Verhoeven who seemed to take the moral victory, despite seeing his boxing record retreat to 1-1 (1 KO). His kickboxing record remains 66-10 (21 KOs).<\/p>\n

“Wow,” Verhoeven said people in kickboxing told him. “What you just showed, and accomplished \u2014 it was out of this world.”<\/p>\n

Though many appeared surprised at how Verhoeven manhandled Usyk, there were a few who seemed to think it was all part of the plan, including Verhoeven and his coach, Peter Fury.<\/p>\n

And so it begs the question, what it was really like for Verhoeven to share the ring with one of the most gifted fighters of his generation, as well as what Usyk’s punches really felt like.<\/p>\n


\n \"Jake<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tJake Paul’s Tweet Straight After Oleksandr Usyk vs Rico Verhoeven Has Gone Viral
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Jake Paul held absolutely nothing back after watching the Rico Verhoeven vs Oleksandr Usyk controversy\u2026<\/p>\n

Rico Verhoeven on Facing Oleksandr Usyk<\/p>\n

Considering Usyk cleared out the cruiserweight division before moving to heavyweight and lapping the competition, including Tyson Fury<\/a>, Anthony Joshua<\/a>, and Daniel Dubois<\/a>, the Ukrainian appeared to back the industry’s placement of him as one of the pound-for-pound best fighters in the entire sport.<\/p>\n

But with Verhoeven’s big-fight experience in kickboxing, including wins over Badr Hari (twice), Jamal Ben Saddik (twice), and Gokhan Saki, the Dutchman insisted that Usyk wasn’t actually some untouchable icon.<\/p>\n

“It was what I expected,” revealed Rico. “He didn’t show me anything that I had not seen before. I expected nothing less than him being amazing, slippery, agile \u2026 and being hard to hit. That’s exactly what he was.”<\/p>\n

Rico Verhoeven on What Oleksandr Usyk’s Punches REALLY Felt Like<\/p>\n

\"Oleksandr<\/p>\n

On GIVEMESPORT’s unofficial scorecard at the time, Verhoeven stormed into an early lead, and seemed to hold it, because of his herky-jerky fist action, his one-two combinations that finished with a thudding and accurate straight right, together with his physical prowess at 6-foot-5.<\/p>\n

For Verhoeven, it was all part of his and coach Fury’s plan. “That’s how we try to take [things] away from him. To look at what he normally is good at. Putting the pressure on and demanding the rhythm of the fight. We took both things away from him.”<\/p>\n

According to Compubox data, Usyk outlanded Verhoeven in five of the six rounds. They, overall, almost matched one another’s output, too. Usyk, for example, landed 112 of 499 punches thrown (22.4% accurate), with Verhoeven connecting 113 times from 508 punches thrown (22.2% accurate).<\/p>\n

Days later, Verhoeven still wore bruising on his face. We asked him if Usyk punched him as hard as he had anticipated heading into the bout.<\/p>\n

“Yes,” he said. “He had good punches that were clean and fast. They weren’t incredibly hard \u2026 but, still. Like I said \u2014 clean. Fast.”<\/p>\n


\n \"Rico<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe Judges’ Scorecards For Oleksandr Usyk vs Rico Verhoeven Revealed
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s like the three judges were watching a different fight than Oleksandr Usyk vs Rico Verhoeven\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dutch kickboxing icon Rico Verhoeven shocked the world with his extraordinary display against unified world heavyweight boxing champion,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-613834","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\/613834","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=613834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}