Usyk rescues gruelling victory against Verhoeven with last-gasp stoppage

• Ukrainian keeps unbeaten record with 11th-round TKO

• Dutch kickboxing great threatened to cause huge upset

Oleksandr Usyk, Ukraine’s unbeaten heavyweight world champion, stopped the Dutch former kickboxer Rico Verhoeven with one second remaining in the penultimate round to avoid what would have been one of the greatest boxing upsets of all time on Saturday.

The WBC title fight at the Pyramids of Giza was considered a mismatch but Verhoeven, whose sole previous professional boxing fight was 12 years ago, tore up the script in mind-boggling fashion from the opening bell and had looked set to win.