Usyk narrowly defeats Verhoeven with late stoppage to retain WBC heavyweight title

Andreas Hale May 23, 2026, 07:28 PM ET Close Andreas Hale is a combat sports reporter at ESPN. Andreas covers MMA, boxing and pro wrestling. In Andreas' free time, he plays video games, obsesses over music and is a White Sox and 49ers fan. He is also a host for Sirius XM's Fight Nation. Before joining ESPN, Andreas was a senior writer at DAZN and Sporting News. He started his career as a music journalist for outlets including HipHopDX, The Grammys and Jay-Z's Life+Times. He is also an NAACP Image Award-nominated filmmaker as a producer for the animated short film "Bridges" in 2024. Follow on X

_Originally reported by [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/48856437/usyk-avoids-upset-verhoeven-last-second-stoppage)._