Rico Verhoeven Rejects UFC Move Over Pay Gap, Eyes 1 Rematch With Usyk

Q: What hidden financial numbers made a kickboxing legend completely abandon his highly anticipated UFC debut?

The key number appears to be that Verhoeven wanted at least a seven-figure UFC purse, and the offers he saw did not get close enough to justify the move. Verhoeven did not disclose an exact UFC bid on Joe Rogan’s show, but the reporting around his free agency points in the same direction: he said the money “didn’t make sense,” cited the floated Derrick Lewis fight as an example, and indicated that the gap between his asking price and standard UFC heavyweight pay had widened. Additional reporting says he had sought more than $1 million per fight in UFC talks. That helps explain why he walked away. In boxing, the numbers are dramatically higher. Estimates for his Usyk fight ranged from roughly $7 million to $10 million, with some reports projecting even more. By comparison, even a high-profile UFC debut would likely have paid only a fraction of that unless the promotion made an unusually large offer. So the “hidden financial numbers” were not one secret disclosed purse, but a mismatch: Verhoeven’s camp appears to have valued a UFC debut in the low seven figures or better, while UFC compensation norms for a newcomer—even a decorated kickboxing star—were well below what he could command in boxing. At 37, he chose the market that better matched his leverage and earning window.

Q: Why did the referee really stop Verhoeven's fight against Usyk just seconds before the bell?

The stoppage appears to have been a genuine officiating error, not evidence of a hidden motive. According to Verhoeven’s trainer Peter Fury, referee Mark Lyson later told him directly that he “didn’t hear the bell.” Fury said he believed that explanation because he also did not clearly hear it from ringside. Lyson’s own explanation, as relayed by Fury, was that Verhoeven looked “shaky” after Usyk’s uppercut and follow-up barrage, so he acted to protect the fighter. That fits what happened in the ring: Verhoeven had been dropped in round 11, got up, and then absorbed a fast Usyk flurry without going down again before the referee waved it off at 2:59 of the round. The controversy comes from the timing. Replays suggested the bell sounded at or around the moment of the stoppage, with about a second left. Verhoeven was still standing, and he and his camp argue he should have been allowed to reach the corner and continue into the 12th, especially because the fight was close on the cards. So the best-supported answer is that the referee stopped it because he believed Verhoeven was too hurt to continue and failed to register the end-of-round bell. That does not remove the controversy, but the available evidence points more to a human mistake under pressure than to anything more deliberate.

3 articles · Updated · MMA Sucka · Aug 8

Rico Verhoeven said he will not sign with the UFC because the promotion has not met his financial demands, adding the gap is now even wider than before.
On Joe Rogan’s JRE MMA Show, the former GLORY heavyweight said a UFC deal would have to “really make sense” financially, and he does not expect that under the company’s pay structure.
The 1-0 MMA fighter had previously been offered a bout with Derrick Lewis, but said those terms were not enough to justify a switch in focus.
Instead, Verhoeven wants a rematch with Oleksandr Usyk after their May boxing fight ended in a controversial 11th-round TKO, with many believing he had been competitive or ahead before the stoppage.