{"id":589665,"date":"2026-05-17T23:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T23:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/589665\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T23:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T23:41:09","slug":"boxing-schedule-for-may-22-23-2026-usyk-vs-rico-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/589665\/","title":{"rendered":"Boxing schedule for May 22-23, 2026: Usyk vs Rico and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amari Jones vs Vincenzo Gualtieri (DAZN, 8:00 pm ET) <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From San Jose, California. Jones is 24, undefeated, and as promising as anyone you could call a young middleweight prospect these days. Gualtieri, known affectionately around here as Vinny Walnuts, was the IBF middleweight champ until Janibek finished him by sixth round TKO to unify titles back in 2023.<\/p>\n

Gualtieri\u2019s reign as champion makes him as credible a name as any to boost Amari\u2019s profile, but the fact is Vinny Walnuts has one fight since February of 2025, and it was a six-round tuneup against a guy with 40 losses. Set your expectations accordingly.<\/p>\n

We may have live coverage, and will at least have an Official Feed Post for discussion.<\/p>\n

On the undercard: Robin Safar faces Yamil Peralta at cruiserweight, plus Darius Fulghum, John \u201cScrappy\u201d Ramirez, and Jordan Panthen in action.<\/p>\n

Oleksandr Usyk vs Rico Verhoeven (DAZN Ultimate or PPV, 11:00 am ET)<\/p>\n

BLH will have live coverage results and updates<\/p>\n

\"Heavyweight<\/a><\/p>\n

Heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk faces legendary kickboxer Rico Verhoeven this week in boxing!<\/p>\n

From Giza, Egypt, for Usyk\u2019s WBC heavyweight title. An Usyk win will count as a defense of his WBA title, but Verhoeven is not eligible to win it. The IBF will declare their heavyweight belt vacant if Usyk loses. Standalone PPV costs $59.99.<\/p>\n

Usyk is the best heavyweight alive, and in the mix for one of the most accomplished boxers of all time after going undisputed at cruiserweight and heavyweight. Rico is a legendary kickboxer, but his pro boxing experience consists of one fight, 12 years ago, in Germany, against a last minute substitute with an 0-5 record.<\/p>\n

This is a clown show, a nonsense fight to stage in front of? sort of near? within visual distance of? in the same city as? the pyramids as the latest hollow spotlight event from LIV Boxing. That\u2019s no disrespect to Rico, who is known as the King of Kickboxing for a reason, and who will undoubtedly give this his best fighting effort. He\u2019d destroy Usyk in a kickboxing match. But, it\u2019s not a kickboxing match, and anyone that\u2019s seen previous variations on this foolishness knows this will be about as one-sided as Usyk desires.<\/p>\n

The only time one of these crossover matchups was remotely competitive, it was because Tyson Fury showed up to face Francis Ngannou looking like he\u2019d staged his training camp at a Shoney\u2019s buffet. Even then, the non-boxer lost. And, Usyk will not take this as lightly as Fury did.<\/p>\n

But, hey, there will be pyramids some yet-to-be-revealed distance from the ring. And maybe someone will win another car raffle. Neato!<\/p>\n

On the undercard: Hamzah Sheeraz faces Alem Begic for the vacant WBO super middleweight belt. Begic is a 39 year old German that\u2019s undefeated, but never fought outside of Central Europe as a pro. Jack Catterall takes on Shakhram Giyasov in a compelling welterweight eliminator \u2013 Catterall is a savvy pro that makes the most of his ability and never seems to have an off night. Giyasov is a former Olympic silver medalist, undefeated, taking a step up in class against Catterall here. Also, Frank Sanchez vs Richard Torrez in a heavyweight eliminator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amari Jones vs Vincenzo Gualtieri (DAZN, 8:00 pm ET) From San Jose, California. Jones is 24, undefeated, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,6839,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-589665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-schedule","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589665","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=589665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}