Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports ><\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779017096_680_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Usyk and Verhoeven had one final look at each other before they stood across the ring with the gold on the line during Friday\u2019s weigh-in. <\/p>\n
Both guys easily made weight as Verhoeven stepped on the scale first, and the \u2018King of Kickboxing\u2019 came in at 258.7.<\/p>\n
Then the jovial champion, who happily went on the scales first when he got announced, made his way to the dais and weighed a career-heaviest 233.3 pounds. <\/p>\n
Usyk and Verhoeven went face-to-face and had a highly intense staredown. They were going eye-to-eye with Verhoeven at one point, leaning in to get a better look. It could have gone another few minutes to see who would blink first and step away, but promoter Eddie Hearn put his arm in front of Verhoeven, and both guys went their separate ways.<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk faces off with Netherlands’ Rico Verhoeven. Photo by Khaled DESOUKI \/ AFPSource: AFP<\/p>\n
The former GLORY kickboxing heavyweight champion made it clear he didn\u2019t come to Egypt to finish in second place. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe main emotion is finally we are here. It\u2019s been so long, six months of crazy hard work,\u201d Verhoeven said at the weigh-in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are writing history again here at the pyramids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) was respectful of Verhoeven\u2019s accomplishments and knows what he brings to the table on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a dangerous guy,\u201d Usyk said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s undisputed in kickboxing. Not only good legs, but hands too. But he\u2019s dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on DAZN<\/a> and was reproduced with permission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk and Rico Verhoeven will be making history this weekend as their WBA and WBC heavyweight title…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-689198","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\/689198","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=689198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}