{"id":38443,"date":"2026-05-24T02:57:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T02:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Rico-Verhoeven-releases-statement-following-loss-to-Oleksandr-Usyk-201300"},"modified":"2026-05-24T02:57:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T02:57:59","slug":"rico-verhoeven-releases-statement-following-loss-to-oleksandr-usyk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/rico-verhoeven-releases-statement-following-loss-to-oleksandr-usyk\/","title":{"rendered":"Rico Verhoeven releases statement following loss to Oleksandr Usyk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rico-verhoeven-releases-statement-following-loss-to-oleksandr-usyk.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Rico-Verhoeven-209771\">Rico<br \/>\nVerhoeven<\/a> believes the scorecards did the talking in his clash<br \/>\nagainst Oleksandr Usyk.<\/p>\n<p>Verhoeven challenged Usyk for the WBC heavyweight title in front of<br \/>\nthe Pyramids in Giza, Egypt, on Saturday. Going in as a +1400<br \/>\nunderdog, Verhoeven shocked the world by dominating the early<br \/>\nrounds against Usyk, even stunning the unified heavyweight<br \/>\nchampion. However, Usyk gradually started landing in the later<br \/>\nrounds and dropped Verhoeven with an uppercut in the 11th. While<br \/>\nVerhoeven returned to his feet, Usyk cornered him with another<br \/>\nbarrage of shots. Referee Mark Lyson then unexpectedly stopped the<br \/>\nfight with a second left in the 11th round, declaring a stoppage<br \/>\nwin for Usyk. The controversial stoppage is facing widespread<br \/>\nbacklash in the world of combat sports.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"adViAi\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> Verhoeven says the lesson he learned from his fight is never to get<br \/>\ncomfortable and always stay focused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNever get comfortable,\u201d Verhoeven told <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/GJoyvHmMGj4?si=L7PjS-xZcvIL-1j3&amp;t=143\">Boxing King Media<\/a>. \u201cStay focused, stay switched<br \/>\non. It ain\u2019t over till it\u2019s over.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>In Pursuit of a Rematch<\/h2>\n<p>While two of the judges had even scorecards, Verhoeven was winning<br \/>\non the third before the fight was stopped. The former kickboxing<br \/>\nchampion believes the scorecards tell the whole story of the fight.<br \/>\nVerhoeven congratulated Usyk on the win while calling for a<br \/>\nrematch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLeave emotions out of it,\u201d Verhoeven wrote on Instagram. \u201cRead the<br \/>\ncards. One second left heading into the 12th and final round.<br \/>\nOnwards and upwards! Respect to [Usyk], it was an honor to share<br \/>\nthe ring with you. Let\u2019s run it back!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DYs5O3wiDIn\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" readability=\"-0.27631578947369\"><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rico Verhoeven believes the scorecards did the talking in his clash against Oleksandr Usyk. Verhoeven challenged Usyk for the WBC heavyweight title in front of the Pyramids in Giza, Egypt, on Saturday. Going in as a +1400 underdog, Verhoeven shocked the world by dominating the early rounds against Usyk, even stunning the unified heavyweight champion. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}