{"id":635037,"date":"2026-06-12T15:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/635037\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:08:09","slug":"john-fury-sums-up-oleksandr-usyks-performance-against-rico-verhoeven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/635037\/","title":{"rendered":"John Fury sums up Oleksandr Usyk’s performance against Rico Verhoeven"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Fury has had his say on Oleksandr Usyk\u2019s performance against Rico Verhoeven, who he believes was always likely to pose the Ukrainian problems.<\/p>\n

The pair squared off in a surprisingly competitive heavyweight<\/a> contest last month, which many had predicted would result in an emphatic victory for Usyk.<\/p>\n

In the end, the 39-year-old did emerge triumphant, via an 11th-round stoppage, but was given no easy route to retain his WBC, IBF and WBA world titles.<\/p>\n

In fact, Verhoeven had built a slight lead on one of the judges\u2019 scorecards<\/a>, while the other two had it 95-95 after 10 completed frames.<\/p>\n

Usyk then swung the momentum back in his favour, flooring the ex kickboxing champion with a right uppercut, before referee Mark Lyson stopped Verhoeven on his feet. The finish came after the round had ended, with Lyson later admitting that he had not heard the bell.<\/p>\n

Verhoeven, meanwhile, had given a terrific account of himself but was unsurprisingly aggrieved by the result, describing it as an early intervention while insisting he could have entered round 12.<\/p>\n

In any case, Usyk has largely been criticised for his performance, while John Fury has told Seconds Out<\/a> that the three-time undisputed champion deserves far more credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, [Verhoeven] posed problems. He\u2019s a 6ft 6in athlete who trains like a demon, [is] strong as a bull and game as a badger.<\/p>\n

\u201c[He\u2019s a] world champion kickboxer \u2013 I don\u2019t know who said he had no chance. You\u2019ve got to give Usyk credit because he\u2019s only a [blown-up] cruiserweight.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just seems to get the job done, and he got the job done [against Verhoeven], so fair play to Usyk. But the referee stopped Rico\u2019s corner from doing their job.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the corner judge him \u2013 they know if their man can come out for the next round or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the brother of Verhoeven\u2019s head coach, Peter Fury, John clearly feels that the Dutchman\u2019s corner would have made a logical decision.<\/p>\n

While the Dutchman calls for a rematch, Usyk must decide whether or not to comply with a WBC mandatory order to face Agit Kabayel next. Should he opt for a second fight with Verhoeven instead, which many in the sport have advised him to do, he risks being stripped of the WBC title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Fury has had his say on Oleksandr Usyk\u2019s performance against Rico Verhoeven, who he believes was always…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-635037","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\/635037","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=635037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}