Jake Paul blasts stoppage in Usyk-Verhoeven: ‘Seriously makes me sad’

The stoppage in the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Rico Verhoeven boxing title fight didn’t sit well with many watching from home, including Jake Paul.

Paul, an influencer-turned pro boxer and promoter, was critical of Usyk’s TKO win in his WBC heavyweight title defense against Verhoeven, a former Glory Kickboxing champion. The bout, which took place in front of the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt and streamed live on DAZN pay-per-view, was stopped at the 2:59 mark of Round 11.

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Many online, along with the DAZN broadcast team, thought Verhoeven was up on the scorecards, and en route to a decision win and one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. There was only one second left in Round 11, and to many, Verhoeven didn’t look all that rattled despite getting dropped in the final 20 seconds of the round. Verhoeven, who immediately protested after the referee intervened, was still standing and had his hands up in defense.

In a series of posts on X, Paul expressed his discontent with the ruling of Saturday’s heavyweight title fight:

“Nah can’t get away from this, but Usyk is the best of our generation, and Rico just worked him every round. So is Rico the best of our generation?,” Paul wrote.

“I truly love boxing, and what happened tonight seriously makes me sad. The sport and the fans deserve better.”

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“Rico vs Francis MVP / MVP MMA.”

Paul, who’s the co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, was involved in Verhoeven’s venture outside of kickboxing. Paul was looking to make Verhoeven vs. former UFC champion Francis Ngannou in MMA for MVP’s inaugural MMA event on Netflix earlier this month. Verhoeven opted out from doing MMA, for now, and went on to box Usyk. As mentioned on his posts on X, Paul is till keen on making Verhoeven vs. Ngannou.