Oleksandr Usyk loses ground in Ali GOAT debate despite KO win

Fighters like Oleksandr Usyk only come around every once in a generation.

After starting his career at cruiserweight, Usyk has translated his superior footwork, iron chin, and opportunistic hooks into a Hall of Fame heavyweight career. Up until recently, he was universally regarded as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

While he lost his P4P title to Inoue last month, Usyk lost something much bigger Saturday night despite beating his opponent with an 11th-round knockout.

Rico Verhoeven isn't a boxer. He is a kickboxer with just 1 boxing fight under his belt. When Verhoeven was announced as Usyk's next opponent, the boxing world let out a collective groan because Usyk already fights only once a year on average, and the one fight we were guaranteed this year seemed like a glorified exhibition.

But thanks to the magic of a scrupulousless boxing ecosystem, the kickboxer with very little boxing experience was gifted a title fight against the world´s best fighter.

This was supposed to be a walk in the park for Usyk, but it was anything but that.

Usyk struggled through much of the early rounds. Verhoeven, the Dutchman, wasn't hurting him per se, but he was making life difficult for the Ukrainian 39-year-old.

After muddling through much of the early rounds, Usyk began throwing his signature combinations later on in the fight. But even when he looked like himself, it was only for a few moments here and there. This wasn't the Usyk we were accustomed to. The only drama would be whether he would figure it out before it was too late.

He did. He figured it out in the 11th round that he was also losing. Perhaps Verhoeven could see the finish line coming and got too excited. Still, for whatever reason, he stepped out of his measured offensive output strategy and started swinging for the fences. For a fighter of Usyks' caliber, that was all that was needed for him to counter and end the fight.

Related: Boxing legend makes great case for Benavidez vs. Usyk fight

But controversial stoppage aside, we have to consider what we saw from Usyk Saturday night in the context of his entire career.

Usyk has said he has three fights left (including Rico), so he can clearly see the finish line. For fans and detractors alike, that means his last three fights were always going to receive an extra bit of scrutiny.

Oleksandr Usyk's place in the GOAT debate challenged after win against Rico Verhoeven

Oleksandr Usyk's fans consider him to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, if not the greatest. Much of the discourse online is about how Usyk is better than the great Muhammad Ali. It is such a great compliment to Usyk to even be mentioned in that echelon, but I can only assume that people who say that have never seen Ali fight.

One of the biggest knocks his detractors have against him is that the heavyweight division isn't anything to write home about right now.

Usyk has cleaned out all of the British heavyweights that have been top-ranked in the division, even beating some of the better ones like Tyson Fury and Daniel Dubois twice. There are no American heavyweights of note to speak of, and he has dominated the division since he moved up in weight in 2019.

But some say that the fact that an undersized heavyweight can come in and clean up, as he has done, shows how weak the heavyweight division is.

Take Fabio Wardley, for example.

He was the next great British heavyweight in line to challenge Usyk, but he was just beaten badly by Daniel Dubois, whom Usyk has knocked out twice. German heavyweight Agit Kabayel could be Usyk's next opponent, but he's another inactive heavyweight who has only fought twice in a year once since 2018 (though he is riding a 6-fight KO streak).

It's unfair to detract from Usyk's career because the division isn't strong, in my opinion, since he can only fight who you put in front of him. It's not his fault that the heavyweight division is historically weak. Plus, he has proven himself head and shoulders above his peers.

But in a historical context, if we are comparing fighters from different generations, then it is absolutely in bounds to discuss the differences in the strength of the heavyweight division now and when Muhammad Ali was fighting.

Usyk beat Dubois, Fury and Anthony Joshua twice. Ali beat Joe Frazier, Floyd Patterson and Sonny Liston twice. Ali beat George Foreman when much of the world thought Foreman was strong enough to literally kill a man in the ring, and he did it using his intellect.

Ali has five losses on his resume, but two of those came at the end of his career when he was already sick with Parkinson's, and he shouldn't have been fighting anyway. One of those losses was against Ken Norton, which he immediately avenged. One of those losses was to another all-time great, Joe Frazier, whom he avenged. And the other loss was against Leon Spinks, which he also avenged.

I've written recently about how boxing has a huge prisoner-of-the-moment problem, and calling Usyk better than Ali smacks of that.

Usyk nearly lost to a kickboxer Saturday night in a fight no one asked for. But he still came out on top in shining fashion, like he always does. Still, a little bit of luster was knocked off, even in victory.

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This story was originally published May 25, 2026 at 2:33 PM.