Oleksandr Usyk’s ex-promoter urges icon to retire and breaks down what went wrong in Rico Verhoeven fight

Oleksandr Usyk’s former long-time promoter, Alexander Krassyuk, wants to see his friend retire before boxing retires him.

Krassyuk oversaw Usyk’s career for 12 years before both parties amicably went their separate ways one month prior to the Ukrainian’s rematch victory over Daniel Dubois last July.

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Before that bout, Krassyuk had urged Usyk to hang up his gloves, and those calls have only grown louder in the aftermath of his lukewarm win over kickboxer Rico Verhoeven on Saturday night.

“It is better to leave one hour before than one minute after,” the K2 Promotions chief told talkSPORT’s White and Jordan on Tuesday lunchtime.

“As a friend and as someone who has been with him for 12 years of his career, I wish for him to remain the best in ages and for him to retire.

“Even before this fight [I wanted him to retire]…

“We witnessed [on Saturday] something that, according to my understanding, shouldn’t have happened.

“But this is a sport of entertainment, and for this reason [it happened].”

Usyk looked like a shadow of his former self as he laboured to an 11th-round stoppage victory over Verhoeven at the foot of Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza.

Few gave Verhoeven, who had only boxed once before last weekend, even the slimmest chance of beating Usyk.

And yet heading into the penultimate round, one of the judges had Verhoeven a point ahead, while the other two couldn’t split the two combatants.

They say that the difference between a champion and a challenger is how they respond in the championship rounds, and it was in the dying embers of the contest that Usyk came alive.

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A lead uppercut sent Verhoeven tumbling to the canvas before a flurry of shots finished off the groggy Dutchman against the ropes.

While the recovery was no doubt impressive, the performance as a whole raised questions about how much age had caught up with Usyk.

Krassyuk breaks down Usyk’s performance

“Oleksandr Usyk is the type of guy who prepares for every fight in the same way, but we have to keep in mind that he is 39 already,” added Krassyuk.

“All the credit to Rico, who is almost the same age, but if you fight 12-rounders, it makes you feel exhausted at some point.

“I am friends with his current trainer, Yegor Golub, who had to replace the other trainer, Yurii Tkachenko, and I know they trained exactly the same way as they did before.

“It was exactly the same volume of work, but the difference between 33 and 36, and 36 and 39 is considerable, and it has to be taken into consideration by all the specialists who are preparing him for such a fight.

“There were some things that looked similar in both [Dubois rematch and Verhoeven] fights.

“He looked flat-footed and the amount of steps he took in the ring considerably declined, and that is probably something that is coming from the mind of the camp rather than Usyk himself.

“They used to train him to [throw] a tougher, harder punch, rather than more of an amateur style where he won all of his titles.”

Usyk is now set to face WBC mandatory challenger Agit Kabayel next, with a rematch against Verhoeven expected to follow.

How does Krassyuk see the Usyk-Verhoeven rematch going?

“If he takes the rematch with Verhoeven, I think it will be an easy fight for Oleksandr,” continued Krassyuk.

“Because it takes away the enigma, the cards will be unveiled.”

As for a fight with the fast-rising Moses Itauma, Krassyuk believes the 21-year-old is still ‘too young’ to trouble Usyk.

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