{"id":586305,"date":"2026-05-15T23:08:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/586305\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T23:08:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:08:24","slug":"usyk-vs-verhoeven-wba-gives-permission-for-oleksandr-usyk-to-defend-world-title-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/586305\/","title":{"rendered":"Usyk vs Verhoeven: WBA gives permission for Oleksandr Usyk to defend world title"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WBA has granted permission for Oleksandr Usyk to defend his ‘Super’ heavyweight title against Rico Verhoeven on 23 May, but under strict terms and conditions.<\/p>\n

Unified champion Usyk, 39, faces former Glory kickboxing world champion Verhoeven at the pyramids of Giza in Egypt.<\/a><\/p>\n

The WBC previously confirmed that Usyk’s title would be on the line but there was uncertainty around whether that would also be the case with his WBA and IBF belts.<\/p>\n

“Should Usyk emerge victorious, the bout will officially count as a successful title defence,” the WBA said.<\/p>\n

“However, the title itself will not be at stake for Verhoeven, as he is currently not ranked by the sanctioning body.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

The IBF said it had granted permission for Usyk to fight, though his belt will not be on the line for Verhoeven.<\/p>\n

“If Usyk loses on May 23, 2026, the IBF Heavyweight title will be declared vacant immediately,” it said.<\/p>\n

Should the Ukrainian win, the IBF said it would order a mandatory challenge within 180 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WBA has granted permission for Oleksandr Usyk to defend his ‘Super’ heavyweight title against Rico Verhoeven on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-586305","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\/586305","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=586305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}