{"id":607310,"date":"2026-04-15T00:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/607310\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T00:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:16:08","slug":"heavyweight-boxer-oleksandr-usyk-puts-wbc-title-on-line-against-kickboxer-rico-verhoeven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/607310\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavyweight boxer Oleksandr Usyk puts WBC title on line against kickboxer Rico Verhoeven"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk has explained why he is giving kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven a shot at his WBC heavyweight boxing title.<\/p>\n

“One time I want to do what I want,” the 39-year-old Usyk said at a news conference.<\/p>\n

The undefeated Ukrainian’s WBA and IBF belts will not be on the line when he faces the 37-year-old Dutch kickboxer in a 12-round bout on May 23 at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.<\/p>\n

Brutal knockout the price of dominance as boxing’s biggest prize gets closer for Jai<\/a><\/p>\n

Jai Opetaia is the only man who can challenge heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk says promoter Eddie Hearn, after the IBF and Ring champion exacted the toll of trying to match it with boxing’s best from David Nyika.<\/p>\n

Usyk, who has not fought since a fifth-round knockout of Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium last July, said “a lot of people” had asked why he was fighting a novice, while the likes of Agit Kabayel \u2014 the WBC interim champion \u2014 waited in the wings.<\/p>\n

“[Verhoeven’s] a great guy, a dangerous guy,” said Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs).<\/p>\n

“A lot of time I do what other people [demand]. I say OK, OK, OK \u2014 now, I do what I [want].”<\/p>\n

The 195 cm-tall Verhoeven won his only bout as a boxer in 2014. He was a longtime heavyweight kickboxing champion.<\/p>\n

He was asked how he would accomplish what no other pro boxer had been able to do \u2014 beat Usyk.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to bring kickboxing angles, bring a different type of puzzle,” Verhoeven said. “I’m a big unit. I’m like 125 kilos.”<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

Usyk, a former cruiserweight champion, fights at under 104.3kg and has beaten an array of larger opponents, including Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.<\/p>\n

“When I land my best punch on him, of course he will go down,” Verhoeven said.<\/p>\n

“He’s like a built-up cruiserweight. I’m like a naturally born heavyweight. So, that’s a big difference. That’s what’s going to happen if I land my best shot clean, and if not, we’re just going to win.”<\/p>\n

Usyk responded: “We’ll see.”<\/p>\n

Earlier in the session, Usyk had said “size doesn’t matter” and that he just needed to train and eat.<\/p>\n

“Hard training and good pasta \u2014 good pasta, double portion. It’s magic,” he said.<\/p>\n

Verhoeven also name-dropped British action star Jason Statham as “one of the people that initiated this opportunity, so super thankful to him”.<\/p>\n

Usyk was asked what would happen if Fury and Joshua finally met in the ring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“AJ win,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s the future undisputed champion.”<\/p>\n

Fury returned from his latest retirement to beat Arslanbek Makhmudov in a unanimous decision victory on Saturday before calling out Joshua, who was seated ringside, to fight him next.<\/p>\n

Joshua did not commit on Saturday but told Netflix that “contracts will be sent over. You’ll probably see us in the ring.”<\/p>\n

Eddie Hearn, who is Joshua’s promoter, said on Tuesday that he was optimistic a deal would be reached for a fight later this year.<\/p>\n

AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk has explained why he is giving kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven a shot at his WBC heavyweight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,5579,295476,7704,187774,199436,588,85,21760],"class_list":{"0":"post-607310","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-egypt","12":"tag-kickboxer","13":"tag-oleksandr-usyk","14":"tag-pyramids","15":"tag-rico-verhoeven","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-title-fight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607310","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=607310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}