On a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Joe Rogan sat down with kickboxing heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven to discuss one of the most controversial matches in recent boxing history: Verhoeven’s bout against undisputed heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Rogan wasted no time sharing his view of the outcome. “And you won 10 rounds, man. You won 10 rounds,” Rogan told Verhoeven. “I don’t give a f**k what those judges were saying.”
The scorecards had one judge with Verhoeven up by one round and others scoring it as a draw, results that Rogan found deeply troubling.
The match’s controversial ending added to the frustration. Verhoeven revealed that he formally appealed the stoppage and received validation on multiple points.
“Everything we appealed upon, we got. They said you guys were right. We got stopped after the bell. The doctor came. I wasn’t disorientated, didn’t have no concussion or whatever symptoms. So everything we got, they were like, ‘You’re right. You’re right. You’re right.'” Despite this, Verhoeven noted plainly: “They never overturned.”
Rogan, drawing on his years as a combat sports commentator, laid out his thinking directly. “Look, it’s either incompetence or corruption. And I tend to think corruption.”
He went further, explaining the reasoning behind his position: “I think these guys want to keep judging matches and they want the favor of the promoters. And the money is in Usyk. Usyk is a huge name. He’s their big star in the heavyweight division.”
Verhoeven agreed, saying, “They don’t want a guy coming in from a different sport with one professional boxing match making the biggest upset in boxing history.”
Verhoeven, who has reigned as the Glory Kickboxing heavyweight champion for over a decade, acknowledged the difficulty of processing the result. “It felt unjust,” he said.
Rogan agreed, saying, “The stoppage felt unjust. It didn’t seem to make sense. Like they were looking for a way to stop the match.”
Both men agreed the sport needs reform. Rogan pointed to Glory’s use of five judges as a model worth adopting. “I think three is too few,” he said. “You could have two people mess it up and one person gets it right. But if you had two more judges, the odds are they’re going to get it right.”
He also floated the idea of a panel of recognized experts judging matches through a dedicated app to provide a collective, transparent scoring reference.
Adding to the controversy, Rogan noted that Usyk has shown no interest in a rematch despite the bout being arguably the most competitive of his heavyweight career.
“That rematch would be gigantic,” Rogan said. “If any match warrants a rematch, it’s that bout.”
Verhoeven confirmed the door remains open on his end: “I would like the rematch because it makes sense. There’s a story within this rematch. It is unfinished business.”
