Oleksandr Usyk, speaking to DAZN after his victory: "Thank you so much. I know right now, Ukrainian people are sitting in the bomb shelter, my daughter too, in a bomb shelter, sent me a message saying, 'Papa, I love you, you will win'.

"Thank you so much, Rico. You are an amazing fighter. Thank you so much to your team. My team, I love you. My wife, I love you. You are my light and my heart.

"This fight was hard. It was a good fight. Thank you, God."

Agit Kabayal is in the ring and face-to-face with Oleksandr Usyk. He wants to fight the world champion in a stadium in Germany.

Usyk says, "I'm ready".

Rico Verhoeven is unhappy he wasn't able to "go out on his shield".

The stoppage came with one second of the 11th round remaining. Wow.

Oleksandr Usyk has been in the ring with Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Daniel Dubois but Rico Verhoeven may be his toughest fight yet.

Really interesting to see the judges' scorecards at the point of the stoppage.

Usyk was in trouble but that uppercut is a get-out-of-jail-free card and it came up clutch for him again.

He keeps hold of his WBC heavyweight world title.

The result also means Usyk keeps hold of his WBA 'super' and IBF belts.

Ronald McIntosh
Commentator on BBC Radio 5 Live

I don't think it's inaccurate to say that Usyk has just had the hardest heavyweight fight of his life.

The bell for the end of the 11th round was a few seconds away but the referee stopped the fight.

That's early for me but I'm not on the end of those hard, punishing punches.

Verhoeven beats the count but Usyk flies in and UNLEASHES in the corner and in comes the referee.

Usyk pulls it out of the bag at the end of the 11th round!

Usyk drops Verhoeven with a STUNNING left uppercut!

Richie Woodhall
Former boxing world champion on BBC Radio 5 Live

I have never seen Usyk on the ropes so much in my life.

Steve Bunce
Boxing expert on BBC Radio 5 Live

Usyk is close to desperate; he knows he has to finish Verhoeven in the last six minutes here.

He is in trouble!

Image source, Getty Images

Two rounds left. This is close, very close.

Verhoeven is roughing Usyk up. He leans on him at every opportunity and that must take so much out of Usyk.

Usyk's speed of foot isn't the same as we've seen from him in the past; he's not creating the angles for the shots.

With 30 seconds of the round left, Usyk opens up and lands but Verhoeven comes back!

Image source, Getty Images

Steve Bunce
Boxing expert on BBC Radio 5 Live

Rico is pushing around one of the best heavyweights we've seen, but he is slowing down.

These rounds are Usyk's territory.

Verhoeven has Usyk up against the ropes and throws in a stinging body shot.

This is not the Usyk we saw destroy Daniel Dubois in July 2025.

Very, very interesting to see how the judges are scoring this.

Richie Woodhall
Former boxing world champion on BBC Radio 5 Live

Good work downstairs from Verhoeven and Usyk is back up on the ropes again. He is struggling.

It looks like Verhoeven is the fitter of two and Usyk looks like he is feeling the pace here.

More advice from Peter Fury for Verhoeven: "You need to throw more shots."

Just to be clear, if Verhoeven pulls off what we thought was the impossible here then it would probably be the biggest upset in boxing history.