Rico Verhoven has called for an apology and a rematch after his controversial stoppage defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in Egypt.
Mirroring Francis Ngannou against Tyson Fury in 2023, Rico Verhoeven may not have won on Saturday, but he still shocked the world.
Ultimately, Rico was stopped in round 11 by Oleksandr Usyk.
The Ukrainian upped the temp and secured a knockdown, one barrage later and the referee had seen enough.
A controversial stoppage, according to Rico’s trainer Peter Fury, the referee did not hear the bell go.
The majority of the boxing world believe Rico was just a round away from becoming world heavyweight champion.
However, the judges in fact would have all had Usyk ahead on the scorecards should the bout had entered the 12th round.
Usyk’s WBC mandatory Agit Kabayel will be ordered next, but many believe the 39 year old should exit the sport on top.
Verhoeven has proved he is a handful in boxing, and certainly has a future in the squared circle.
Speaking to BBC Sport, Verhoeven stated: “[I want] just an apology. What else can we do?”
“I cant demand anything else”.
“Mistakes can be made because we are all human and that’s ok”.
“But all I’m looking for is ‘yeah, sorry guys, this could have gone differently- this is something we have to look at and hopefully this doesn’t happen in the future”.
“That’s it and then let’s continue from there and get to the rematch”.
“His [Usyk] has been amazing anyway, but I definitely feel we made a crack in the guy was considered invincible”.
“I’m just coming into the sport of boxing so this world is new for me.”
“I don’t know exactly how things work, I just go with the flow but I know I shocked the world”.
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