{"id":513377,"date":"2026-03-04T08:30:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T08:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/513377\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T08:30:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T08:30:24","slug":"rico-verhoevens-fight-vs-oleksandr-usyk-one-of-many-in-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/513377\/","title":{"rendered":"Rico Verhoeven\u2019s Fight vs Oleksandr Usyk \u2018One of Many\u2019 in Boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rico Verhoeven isn\u2019t just crossing over the sport of <a href=\"https:\/\/boxing-social.com\/category\/news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">boxing<\/a> for a good time, he\u2019s entering for a long time as the conversations he\u2019s had with organizers suggest <a href=\"https:\/\/boxing-social.com\/news\/oleksandr-usyk-next-fight-rico-verhoeven\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">his upcoming bout with Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> is just \u201cone of many.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The former Glory champion, 36, has long been linked with a move to an alternative combat discipline following sustained success in kickboxing.<\/p>\n<p>Combat sports presenter Ariel Helwani last year suggested a three-fight deal with Francis Ngannou for an event series that would see the fighters compete one leg in kickboxing, one in boxing, and one in mixed martial arts.<\/p>\n<p>The UFC also presenter Verhoeven with a \u201cdecent\u201d offer to compete for the Las Vegas-based promotion against American slugger Derrick Lewis at a time in which he was in talks for a February showdown in boxing against Anthony Joshua.<\/p>\n<p>The fight Verhoeven will actually participate in, though, is against Usyk on May 23 and it will take place at the Pyramids of Giza.<\/p>\n<p>For the Dutch striker, though, it is not just about Usyk but the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey want to build up something and create a whole thing,\u201d the fighter said on Tuesday\u2019s The Ariel Helwani Show. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\">\u201cWe start off with this fight but we want to do multiple fights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On whether he could fulfil his obligation in boxing, and return to the negotiating table for a shot as a UFC heavyweight, he said: \u201cWe\u2019re always open to see and discuss. We\u2019re not super solid on anything. And open for other and different things, especially with what we saw with Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul. They think outside the box. They go left and right, and always open for debate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He finished: \u201cI\u2019m still open to do both but the transition from kickboxer to boxing, I\u2019ve been boxing for the last 15 years. The fun thing now \u2014 Peter Fury is training Rico \u2014 guys, I\u2019ve been training with Peter Fury for the last 15 years, back in the day, coming as a sparring partner for Tyson Fury, and just being there constantly, putting in the work and turning into a training partner. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s one of the key elements that made me such a good kickboxer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MUST READ:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rico Verhoeven isn\u2019t just crossing over the sport of boxing for a good time, he\u2019s entering for a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-513377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}