Usyk looked scared in there at times with opponent Rico and this was supposed the heavyweight champion of the world.
The undisputed heavyweight champion of the world no less in Oleksandr Usyk.
He stepped in there with a kickboxing champion whom had just one previous pro boxing match before hand and at times looked full of fear.
A rapid descent the last few months for Usyk and a stark, brutal reminder to him.
He won the fight but barely and many thought it should not have been stopped and it would have given Rico a chance to have sprung the biggest upset in all of professional sports history.
Some fast points to note here on Usyk:
- Verhoeven’s aggression, awkwardness and defense allowed him to pull ahead and stay in controlÂ
- Usyk had his moments sparingly and the fight appeared to be slipping from his grasp through 10 roundsÂ
- Usyk was not moving freely and was caught several times as the pace slowed into the middle roundsÂ
- Verhoeven forced Usyk back onto the ropes in the ninth and kept up pressure in the 10thÂ
- Usyk looked bamboozled by Verhoeven after seven rounds according to Bloody ElbowÂ
- Usyk started sitting down on his punches only in round 11 after struggling for most of the fightÂ
- Verhoeven was bullying and overpowering an off-colour Usyk
- Usyk only began to show his class in round four after Verhoeven won the first threeÂ
- Usyk’s championship mettle only shone through starting late in the 10th roundÂ
Alas, in the run up we said we thought Usyk had slowed down.
He did. The added muscle and weight didn’t help him.
But there was more.
He was white as a ghost all week and didn’t look well at all.
He looked like saw a ghost.
He remains heavyweight champion, for now, who knows what next for him but he moves down in the Boxing News and Views pound for pound rankings.
