{"id":527143,"date":"2026-03-10T16:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T16:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/527143\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T16:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T16:27:09","slug":"tyson-fury-sums-up-rico-verhoevens-chances-of-beating-oleksandr-usyk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/527143\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyson Fury sums up Rico Verhoeven’s chances of beating Oleksandr Usyk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tyson Fury<\/a> has weighed in on Oleksandr Usyk<\/a>\u2019s upcoming clash against Dutch kickboxer Rico Verhoeven, with whom he has previously shared multiple rounds of sparring.<\/p>\n

It was announced last month that the Ukrainian will face Verhoeven on May 23<\/a>, headlining a Ring Magazine card at Egypt\u2019s Pyramids of Giza.<\/p>\n

Initially, it was thought that Usyk\u2019s three world titles would not be on the line, only for the WBC to later announce that it will sanction the contest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Verhoeven has therefore leapfrogged a selection of worthy contenders, including Agit Kabayel<\/a> and Lawrence Okolie, by securing a world title shot in only his second professional boxing contest.<\/p>\n

His first outing arrived in 2014, when the decorated kickboxer scored a second-round finish over Janos Finfera, who had entered their bout with a record of 0-5.<\/p>\n

In stark contrast to his next opponent, Usyk has cemented himself as the greatest heavyweight boxer of this era, boasting two wins over Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois, respectively.<\/p>\n

The masterful southpaw has not fought since July, though, when he became a three-time, two-division undisputed champion by stopping Dubois in the fifth round<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But despite only fighting once last year, many remain convinced that Usyk will handily defeat Verhoeven and successfully defend his WBC title.<\/p>\n

Fury, who trained with Verhoeven while under the tutelage of Peter Fury, has told Gareth A Davis<\/a> that his former foe should ultimately take care of business but that Verhoeven\u2019s power gives him a chance of causing a huge upset.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Verhoeven\u2019s] a big man, isn\u2019t he? Big right hand. [But] I\u2019m sure Usyk\u2019s faced plenty of right-handed people who can knock people out, i.e. Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s fought a lot of big men with a similar style to Rico but, listen, [Verhoeven\u2019s] a big man, he\u2019s got a chance, he\u2019s got power\u2026 Who knows what he can do in there?<\/p>\n

\u201cUsyk\u2019s, what is he, 39 years old now? But the thing with him is he\u2019s only had 24 [professional] fights; he doesn\u2019t have a lot of mileage on the clock.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he turned pro in late 2013, so I think he\u2019s going to be alright.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fury suffered two points defeats to Usyk in 2024<\/a>, with their first encounter ending in a split decision after \u2018The Gypsy King\u2019 found himself on the receiving end of a ninth-round knockdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tyson Fury has weighed in on Oleksandr Usyk\u2019s upcoming clash against Dutch kickboxer Rico Verhoeven, with whom he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-527143","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\/527143","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=527143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}