Daniel Dubois said Usyk struggled with Rico in their heavyweight title fight and he is very right about that. Learn why.
Usyk was tagged many times in the fight and pulled a rabbit out of his pocket so to speak to bring about a stoppage very late on.
Only when Rico was gassing, he caught him with the right uppercut which did the damage but the stoppage by the referee was controversial to say the least.
Some things to bare in mind there as well on this:
- Usyk fought kickboxer Rico Verhoeven in May 2026 in Egypt.
- Usyk secured an 11th-round TKO victory over Verhoeven.
- The stoppage in round 11 proved controversial.
- Verhoeven landed effective shots and won rounds against Usyk.
- Usyk appeared pushed to his limits during the contest.
- Dubois claimed the performance showed Usyk might be past his peak.
- Usyk was 39 years old at the time of the Verhoeven fight.
- The bout took place at the Pyramids of Giza.
- Usyk dug deep to finish Verhoeven late in the fight.
Dubois was right but it wasn’t so much Usyk’s age, it looked to us to be a factor of declining motivation at the highest level.
Maybe a little bit too much muscle and bulk added which doesn’t help him specifically as a boxer.
And possibly some outside of boxing stuff as he looked rattled fight week and fought very nervously in there.
His ability saved him at the last minute from what would have been the biggest sports upset in history.
Usyk has fallen down the pound for pound boxing top 10 rankings since.