Rico Verhoeven confirms he will appeal Oleksandr Usyk defeat after controversial stoppage

Rico Verhoeven has announced that he plans to launch an official appeal after the controversial ending to his fight with Oleksandr Usyk.

On Saturday night, two-time undisputed heavyweight champion Usyk returned to the ring for a historic bout taking place in front of the iconic pyramids of Giza, Egypt,

The Ukrainian faced kickboxing champion Verhoeven, who was granted a shot at Usyk's WBC heavyweight title despite only having one professional boxing fight beforehand.

Unsurprisingly, Verhoeven entered the fight as a huge underdog, with many predicting he wouldn't make it to the fifth round given Usyk's vast wealth of experience against the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Daniel Dubois.

But the Dutch fighter put in a stunning performance, with pundits believing that he was likely ahead on the scorecards heading into the championship rounds, having dominated Usyk at the start of the fight.

However, in the final moments of the 11th round, Usyk landed a devastating right uppercut that knocked his opponent down before landing the final blow that led to referee Mark Lyson stepping in to stop the fight with seconds remaining in the penultimate round.

READ MORE: Oleksandr Usyk vs Rico Verhoeven scorecards spark mass outrage after Glory in Giza fight

Immediately after the referee stepped in, pundits and fans began questioning his decision, suggesting that he had called the fight off early and that Verhoeven deserved the chance to recover and return in the 12th round due to his performance earlier in the fight.

And these feelings have only been cemented by the fact that footage posted after the fight from ringside appeared to show that the stoppage actually came after the bell to signal the end of the round had rang.

With that in mind, Verhoeven has confirmed that he will look to address the issue and have the result overturned through an official appeal that he will launch after he has recovered from the fight.

“They stopped the fight after the bell. I think we’re just going to go ahead and file an appeal because this makes no sense," Verhoeven told Boxing News

“When the referee intervened, I wasn’t dazed or anything like that. I looked at him thinking: Why are you stopping it? We were so close to making it to the end. It’s totally absurd. The referee must be aware of what he’s doing.

“Of course, mistakes happen, but he needs to admit his error. They should review the footage and declare the fight a ‘no contest’ or go to the judges’ scorecards. And if they went to the cards, at that point I was ahead on points.”

Who will Usyk fight next after Verhoeven win?

Should Verhoeven appeal the result of the fight and his appeal lead to it be overturned, then it is almost certain that he will be given an immediate rematch with Usyk later this year.

Even if the kickboxing champions decides against lodging the appeal or it is unsuccessful, Saudi boxing chief Turki Alalshikh appeared to express an interest in the rematch post-fight, leaving the door open for us to see the pair clash again.

However, shortly after the result was announced, there was a quick shift in the ring to have Usyk face-off with top contender Agit Kabayel, the mandatory challenger who Usyk has been ordered to face by the WBC.

Should Usyk fail to fight the unbeaten German boxer, it would result in him being stripped of his WBC title.

"Agit is the interim WBC champion and next in line. Usyk now either has to fight him or vacate, it’s as simple as that," Kabayel's promoter, Frank Warren, wrote on X post-fight.