![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/53881_9915100_updates.jpg\")
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This collage of photos shows heavyweight boxing champion\u00a0Oleksandr Usyk (left) and\u00a0Rico Verhoeven. \u2014 Reuters\/Instagram<\/p>\n
Kickboxing legend Liam Harrison has said that no one can beat Oleksandr Usyk in the current boxing world, but Rico Verhoeven deserves a chance due to his legendary status.<\/p>\n
Two-time undisputed heavyweight champion Usyk is set to make his long-awaited boxing return on May 23 in Giza, Egypt, where he will defend his WBC title against kickboxing great Verhoeven.<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian boxer has been allowed by the WBC for a voluntary defence of its belt before taking on his mandatory challenger.<\/p>\n
Usyk, who currently holds the WBA, WBC and IBF belts, has not entered the ring since stopping Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium in July.<\/p>\n
Oleksandr Usyk will be facing a vastly different challenge in Verhoeven, who will be stepping into a boxing ring for the first time since 2014.<\/p>\n
Verhoeven, 36, is a kickboxing legend and has a record of 66-10, 21 KOs as a kickboxer.<\/p>\n
Harrison, who is himself a kickboxing legend, said that no one can beat Usyk in the boxing world, but guys like Verhoeven deserve chances like these.<\/p>\n
“No one can beat Usyk in a boxing fight, I don’t care who you are. He’s the best heavyweight on this planet and he’s the best heavyweight of this era. If guys like Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua can’t put a dent in him, no one’s going to be able to put a dent in him I’m afraid,\u201d Harrison told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
“Rico’s going to have to throw a few leg kicks if he wants to get one over on him in there!<\/p>\n
“Again Rico’s a legend in kickboxing. Guys like that who paved the way in kickboxing have been the GOATs [greatest of all time] in their generation, they deserve to get these sort of paydays and these sort of chances to showcase what they can do and get some big money.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This collage of photos shows heavyweight boxing champion\u00a0Oleksandr Usyk (left) and\u00a0Rico Verhoeven. \u2014 Reuters\/Instagram Kickboxing legend Liam Harrison…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,17418,255674,7704,199436,85,7502,255675],"class_list":{"0":"post-509906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-harrison","12":"tag-liam-harrison","13":"tag-oleksandr-usyk","14":"tag-rico-verhoeven","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-usyk","17":"tag-verhoeven"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509906","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=509906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}