{"id":687086,"date":"2026-05-22T20:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/687086\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T20:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:33:12","slug":"sparring-partner-likens-usyk-to-the-lebron-james-of-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/687086\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparring Partner Likens Usyk To The LeBron James Of Boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The all-time-great Ukrainian, a three-time undisputed champion across two weight classes, is set to take on kickboxing icon Rico Verhoeven in Giza, Egypt on Saturday night<\/a>.Given he turns 40 in January and has had 13 world title fights duing a career that started in 2013, there could be some expectation of a decline in his performance, but Usyk<\/a> (24-0, 15 KOs) actually appears to be getting better with age. Viktor Jurk, an undefeated heavyweight who is a regular sparring partner in the champion\u2019s camp, has explained why Usyk has been able to improve when most others would decline.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust think about it,\u201d Jurk told The Ring. \u201cHe has earned so much money that he has the ability to invest in his team and his training camp properly. He has a huge team behind him. Take me for example, I have a team, but they all still have regular 9-5 jobs, we do the best we can and that is like most other fighters.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut imagine you can pay everyone proper money. Their only job is to make sure you train, you have food, you worry about nothing, you just go. People are working for you, not working for a company because you are the company. Look at LeBron James and why he is still able to play in the NBA. How? Because he puts $1 million into his preparation every year. Usyk is just like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

James, 41, is considered arguably the greatest player the NBA has ever seen and it is his longevity that sets him apart from the league\u2019s other icons. He has played a record 23 seasons and became the NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer in 2023. As if to highlight just how long James has been going, he has played against approximately 36.4 percent of all players in NBA history.<\/p>\n

His longevity is driven by a huge investment in a state-of-the-art recovery routine, which includes ice baths, hyperbaric chambers and yoga.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s Jurk (14-0, 12 KOs), who was a main sparring partner for Usyk\u2019s back-to-back victories over Tyson Fury<\/a>, added, \u201cUsyk is in a position where he has like 10 guys in camp and everyone has a job \u2013 one is cooking food, one is wrapping his hands, one is the physio, one is this, one is that. Then Sergey [Lapin] is the head of it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsyk is not a guy who cares about driving Ferraris. He\u2019s an athlete who just wants to get better. That\u2019s why, with big money you can keep improving. When you\u2019re young maybe you improve your strength and skills as you grow, but the big money is why he probably still improves now. He has this money so he can invest in himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verhoeven<\/a> is a huge underdog for the clash at the Pyramids of Giza on Saturday night and for good reason. Despite his dominance in his own field, the Dutchman\u2019s last boxing match took place 12 years ago.Jurk does not see the Ring, WBA, WBC and IBF heavyweight champion taking his eye off the ball. Instead, he anticipates a brutal knockout akin to Anthony Joshua<\/a>\u2019s over Francis Ngannou or Usyk\u2019s own chilling dismissal of Tony Bellew in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a different sport to kickboxing,\u201d Jurk said. \u201cMaybe Verhoeven has some power, but so did Ngannou. He was a strong man, but AJ was a strong man who understands how to box. Look what happened there. I think Usyk should win in the first couple of rounds. Maybe it will go a few more rounds, but it will end when Usyk wants it to. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think he will knock him out properly, like the way he knocked out Tony Bellew. He will tire him out, then catch him. I don\u2019t see him overlooking this fight because he has too much to lose. There is talk about a third fight with Fury and that\u2019s a nine-figure fight again. That\u2019s a huge thing for him, so he cannot afford to lose this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribers to DAZN\u2019s Ultimate plan<\/a>, which costs $49.99 per month in the United States and \u00a324.99 in the United Kingdom, can watch the four-fight Usyk-Verhoeven event for no additional charge. It is also available via pay-per-view in the U.S. ($59.99) and UK (\u00a324.99) for non-subscribers<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The pay-per-view portion of this Ring card is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. BST (2 p.m. ET).<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The all-time-great Ukrainian, a three-time undisputed champion across two weight classes, is set to take on kickboxing icon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[72640,703,184736,711,49,48,4150,82,1134],"class_list":["post-687086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-object-object","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-articles","tag-boxing-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-interview","tag-sports","tag-the-ring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687086","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=687086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}