Respected boxing attorney John Hornewer, who represents world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, posted his take on Usyk's eleventh-round technical knockout win against kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven: "The event in Giza, [Egypt]... we will never see something like it again. In the locker room afterwards, Usyk looked around at everyone and said 'Hey guys, smile. It’s not that bad.'  He knew he’d been tested. He also knew that he was the deserved winner. The more I think of it, the more I’m impressed with what Usyk did. Rico was a supremely confident, athletic, awkward, enormous combat sport legend who had been trained expertly by Peter Fury for months for one person - Usyk. Usyk had no way to scout him or anticipate what Verhoeven would do. Usyk got hit by awkward stuff because these were non-traditional punches and combinations that no one [who had been] trained for years in boxing would throw. I myself had it even going into the eleventh. Usyk kept pressing and put a fading Rico down with a huge uppercut. Rico spit out the mouthpiece and bought extra time to recover. Any delay and confusion about the end of the round was due to the mouthpiece being replaced. Usyk jumped on him, and while some argue that the stoppage was a bit quick, the referee, who is there in the ring, decided Rico wasn’t able to continue.  

 

"The bell [which sounded a second before the referee indicated the stoppage] doesn’t matter. The referee can stop a fight, in his sole discretion, anytime after start of the bout through the final bell. If the fight went to round twelve, Usyk will have won the eleventh 10-8 and [would have been] up by two points on two cards and even on other.  So even if Rico somehow survives the twelfth and wins the round, Usyk wins the fight by [at least a] split decision. On the other hand Usyk was likely denied the chance to stop Rico definitively. Usyk looked, in my humble opinion, a bit too muscular and didn’t wasn’t able to make Rico fight backing up enough. But he got it done on a night when Rico arguably beats everyone else in the division. Credit to them both. Usyk finally wore Rico down and the end was near - the moment of the stoppage may be questioned but the victory should not be. If Usyk was not a modern great, it surely would have been Rico’s night. And still..."