Rico Verhoeven Questions ‘Fishy’ Usyk Fight Scoring

The Dutch Kickboxing legend believes all the judges were sorely mistaken in their scoring of his world title shot against Usyk

Rico Verhoeven | IMAGO / ANP

Rico Verhoeven has revealed his take on his blockbuster heavyweight title loss against Oleksandr Usyk this past weekend in front of the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

The build-up to this fight, in retrospect, was disrespectful to the athlete and competitor that Verhoeven is. All the fans and pundits gave the Dutchman little to no chance against the reigning heavyweight champion, Oleksandr Usyk, allowing him but a few rounds of survival before the champion would end the fight.

But on the night, it couldn't have been anything further from the truth. Verhoeven came out with a hunched, front-footed, unorthodox style that gave Usyk serious problems. Most watching and in attendance gave Verhoeven a large lead heading into the 11th round, but the scorecards later revealed that he was only ahead by one round on one judge's scorecard, and the others were even before the stoppage.

Rico Verhoeven made quite the impression against Oleksandr Usyk 👏#UsykRico | @ringmagazine ▪️ pic.twitter.com/XWHUEeXXT9

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) May 24, 2026

Rico Verhoeven on the open scorecards

The fight had open scoring, meaning that every four rounds, the corners would receive the scorecards from all three judges and Verhoeven described the feeling of surprise and shock at each of these intervals when he was not being rewarded for his work.

"There were open scorecards and after four rounds, they said we're even," he told the Ariel Helwani Show. "I was like, 'Hmm, ok.' I felt like it was at least three to one, but ok, we're even, that's fine.

"Then we get the scorecards again after another four rounds and still we were even. It started to feel fishy because I felt like I was winning these rounds. I was working more, I’m getting hit less and I’m touching him more than he’s hitting me, so maybe I have to push it a little bit more."

“Maybe, It’s getting looked at through at protective boxing lens, maybe because I'm an outsider I have to put in that extra work to be even more convincing.”

The controversy of the fight extends not only to the scorecards but the nature of the stoppage. The referee seemed to stop the fight after the bell for the end of the 11th round had sounded, not giving Verhoeven the opportunity to recover from the monster uppercut and come back out for the 12th round.

How did he score the fight through 10 rounds?

Given that he was ahead on all the fans and pundits scorecards, there was outrage that he was not allowed to continue. When asked about how he scored the fight up to that point, Verhoeven had a definitive answer.

“Somewhere 8-2. I look at certain rounds, and I’m like, ‘How did I lose that?’," Verhoeven explained. "He didn’t even touch me, maybe more than once or twice, and I hit him four, five, six times.”

Usyk vs Verhoeven | IMAGO / Middle East Images

As controversial stoppages go, this will be remembered as one of those that could leave a lasting stain on boxing. There is also the fact that on the judges' scorecards, it would not have mattered if the kickboxing legend had come back out for the 12th round, unless he scored an unlikely knockout, as the knockdown in the 11th gave Usyk an almost unassailable two-point lead on two of the cards.