{"id":509828,"date":"2026-02-28T14:20:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509828\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T14:20:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:20:27","slug":"rico-verhoeven-to-be-trained-by-former-tyson-fury-coach-for-usyk-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509828\/","title":{"rendered":"Rico Verhoeven to be trained by former Tyson Fury coach for Usyk title fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven is a \u201cserious fighter,\u201d according to Tyson Fury<\/a>\u2019s former trainer, who believes his charge will exceed expectations against Oleksandr Usyk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The bona fide heavyweight king has been permitted to defend his WBC title against Verhoeven<\/a>, headlining a Ring Magazine show at Egypt\u2019s Pyramids of Giza on May 23.<\/p>\n

Ordinarily, a sanctioning body would not allow such a contest to take place for its belt, with world title challengers typically needing to be ranked in the top 15 of a recognised organisation.<\/p>\n

The WBC, however, has seemingly invoked article 3.3 (c) of its Rules and Regulations, stating that such title defences can take place under \u2018special circumstances\u2019.<\/p>\n

Indeed, this does appear to be a \u2018special\u2019 event \u2013 based on its location alone \u2013 yet many boxing fans will nonetheless be unfamiliar with Verhoeven\u2019s credentials.<\/p>\n

This is because the 36-year-old has had just one outing in a professional boxing ring, resulting in a second-round stoppage victory over Janos Finfera who, back when they fought in 2014, had a record of 0-5.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the Dutchman\u2019s trainer, Peter Fury, who trained his nephew Tyson for his famous win over Wladimir Klitschko back in 2015, has told Boxing King Media<\/a> that, beyond his decorated kickboxing career, Verhoeven is well-versed in the art of pugilism.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to get behind this fight, because I can tell you now: I\u2019m certainly not going to turn up on the world stage [and] embarrass myself, and embarrass my fighter.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy fighter\u2019s a serious fighter, so this will be a great fight. Trust me. Usyk\u2019s an incredible champion. I respect him as a fighter, a boxer, and I respect him as a human being.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I respect Rico. So I\u2019m going to do my job, and I\u2019m going to enjoy it, and whatever the outcome is, it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Usyk will definitely defend his WBC title against Verhoeven<\/a>, it remains to be seen whether his IBF and WBA straps will also be on the line.<\/p>\n

Either way, the likes of WBC \u2018interim\u2019 champion Agit Kabayel and No.1 contender Lawrence Okolie are likely irked to have not been given their shot at the Ukrainian\u2019s belt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven is a \u201cserious fighter,\u201d according to Tyson Fury\u2019s former trainer, who believes his charge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-509828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}