Verhoeven is a huge underdog and victory over Usyk would rank among the biggest shocks in boxing history, arguably surpassing Buster Douglas’ stunning win over Mike Tyson in Tokyo in 1990.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman won 66 of his 76 kickboxing fights and has not lost in more than 4,000 days. But the 37-year-old has had only one professional boxing bout – a stoppage win over a journeyman 12 years ago.<\/p>\n
Usyk, meanwhile, is one of boxing’s most decorated fighters; an Olympic gold medallist, undisputed cruiserweight champion and two-time undisputed heavyweight champion who remains unbeaten in 24 professional bouts.<\/p>\n
The 39-year-old wore a striking Egyptian-inspired white and gold outfit, complete with a cape and draped sleeves, though his answers did not match the extravagance of his attire. At one stage, he even appeared to be on a video call during the media-only event.<\/p>\n
When it was put to him that Verhoeven believes his lack of experience could bring an element of surprise Usyk has never faced before, the champion replied: “I have no idea how many rounds this will go. I’m not sad with 12 rounds. It’s normal. But I don’t know. When I have the chance, I’ll do it.”<\/p>\n
The contest will count as a defence of Usyk’s WBA ‘Super’ title and he would also lose his IBF belt if defeated, although Verhoeven is not eligible to win either championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Verhoeven is a huge underdog and victory over Usyk would rank among the biggest shocks in boxing history,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-460620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}