Unified world champion Oleksandr Usyk said he should be allowed to “do what I want to do” as the heavyweight great defended his decision to face boxing novice Rico Verhoeven on 23 May in Egypt.<\/p>\n
In a news conference which included a prediction Anthony Joshua would be the next undisputed heavyweight champion and a two-minute face-off, Usyk made it clear the Verhoeven fight was a decision he made for himself in the twilight of his career.<\/p>\n
Verhoeven, 37, has boxed professionally only once – in 2014 – while 39-year-old Usyk is one of the most decorated fighters in the sport’s history.<\/p>\n
“For me it’s a challenge. Rico is a great guy, a dangerous guy,” Usyk said as the pair met at a news conference in London.<\/p>\n
“One time I want to do what I want, not what I need. A lot of time I do what other people need. You have to box this person, or this or this. I say okay. Now I do what I want.”<\/p>\n
The contest is widely viewed as a major mismatch, with critics particularly questioning why the WBC world title is at stake.<\/p>\n
Usyk is an Olympic gold medallist, undisputed cruiserweight champion and two-time undisputed heavyweight champion who remains unbeaten in 24 professional bouts.<\/p>\n
Verhoeven won 66 of his 76 kickboxing fights before announcing his departure from the sport in November. In boxing, he recorded a stoppage victory in his only bout 12 years ago against an opponent who had never won a professional fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unified world champion Oleksandr Usyk said he should be allowed to “do what I want to do” as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-606889","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-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606889","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=606889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}