In the last second of the penultimate round, Rico Verhoeven lost his boxing fight with world champion Oleksandr Oesyk. The timing of that decision led to angry and indignant reactions at the foot of the pyramids of Giza.

“I would have liked to start the twelfth round. I thought it was too early to stop, but that decision is not up to me,” said a disappointed Verhoeven in an initial reaction in the ring.

The former kickboxing champion was well on his way to astounding the boxing world in Egypt. His match against the undefeated champion Oesyk was labeled in advance as a mismatch, but Verhoeven was the better boxer for a long time and took a lead on points.

Until things went wrong in the final phase of the eleventh of twelve rounds. Verhoeven had already gone down for 8 seconds, after which Oesyk hit him again with a hard uppercut just before the bell sounded.

British referee Mark Lyson decided to stop the fight and awarded the victory by technical knockout to Oesyk.

Half an hour after the match, Verhoeven responded extensively to the questionable ending. “The referee also knows that it is the last second. Get it? There is no need to stop.”

“Then just knock me out completely. I’d rather lose like this than the way it happened now.”

If Verhoeven had been allowed to continue, he would certainly have given himself another chance. “Then you have another minute to recover and you are already in the twelfth round. Then it will be a fight until the last second.”

“Then I might have been the new boxing champion. If, if, if…”, Verhoeven grumbled. “It would of course be a very big shock if a kickboxer had won.”

After ten laps, Verhoeven had a minimal lead. Two of the three judges had a score of 95-95, while the third judge Verhoeven led 96-94.

The eleventh round would have gone to Oesyk 10-8, meaning Verhoeven would have had to knock his opponent to the ground once in the possible twelfth round for a victory.

The fact that the twelfth round never happened also led to anger among Verhoeven’s trainer Dennis Krauweel. “Honestly, this referee broke the fight.”

Krauweel could not take any joy in the fact that Verhoeven surprised the boxing world with his strong performance so soon after the fight. “That’s still too early. He could have simply become WBC champion.”

“I’m not saying he would have won it 100 percent, because he just has to survive that last round. But the referee really ruined it.”

There was immediate talk in the ring about a possible rematch on Dutch soil.