{"id":583592,"date":"2026-05-14T13:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/583592\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T13:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T13:13:07","slug":"wba-make-last-minute-decision-on-usyks-world-title-just-days-before-rico-verhoeven-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/583592\/","title":{"rendered":"WBA make last minute decision on Usyk&#8217;s world title just days before Rico Verhoeven fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With just nine days to go until <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/oleksandr-usyk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> defends the WBC heavyweight world title against Rico Verhoeven, the WBA have decided to allow him to defend their belt also.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst recognised as a Dutch kickboxing legend, Rico Verhoeven boasts a professional boxing record of just 1-0; that victory coming over 12 years ago against the then 0-5 recorded, Janos Finfera.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As a result, when his unconventional showdown with Usyk was announced, the undefeated Ukrainian\u2019s belts were not expected to be at stake, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/48758822\/belt-controversy-why-wbc-line-ibf-wba\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">whilst the WBA and IBF\u2019s stance was unclear, the WBC controversially agreed to sanction the contest<\/a>\u00a0as a heavyweight world title bout.<\/p>\n<p>This led to speculation that WBA and IBF could strip Usyk of their titles, with Murat Gassiev [WBA] and the victor of <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/usyk-mandatory-challenger-to-be-decided\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Frank Sanchez\u2019s fight with Richard Torrez Jr.<\/a> [IBF] likely to benefit and either be elevated to champion or positioned for a vacant title bout with the respective bodies.<\/p>\n<p>However, in an intriguing but confusing twist, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbaboxing.com\/boxing-news\/wba-approves-usyk-to-defend-wba-crown-on-may-23#:~:text=Should%20Usyk%20emerge%20victorious%2C%20the,action%20regarding%20the%20heavyweight%20championship.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">WBA have suddenly announced their terms for the \u2018title fight\u2019<\/a> after a \u2018special request\u2019. Now, they have determined that a Usyk victory will count as a successful title defence but that, if Verhoeven were to pull off the remarkable upset, \u2018the WBA Championship Committee would then review his [Usyk\u2019s] status\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShould Usyk emerge victorious, the bout will officially count as a successful title defense. If the champion were to lose, the WBA Championship Committee would then review his status and determine the next course of action regarding the heavyweight championship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, whilst Usyk can officially retain his WBA heavyweight world title with a triumph next Saturday, the unranked Verhoeven will be unable to claim that belt.<\/p>\n<p>Although, the WBA have revealed that a Verhoeven win would make him eligible to enter their heavyweight ratings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With just nine days to go until Oleksandr Usyk defends the WBC heavyweight world title against Rico Verhoeven,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-583592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}