{"id":648786,"date":"2026-06-20T10:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T10:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/648786\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T10:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T10:50:07","slug":"roy-jones-jr-delivers-honest-verdict-on-anthony-joshua-vs-rico-verhoeven-these-guys-can-punch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/648786\/","title":{"rendered":"Roy Jones Jr delivers honest verdict on Anthony Joshua vs Rico Verhoeven: &#8220;These guys can punch&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/roy-jones-jr\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Roy Jones Jr<\/a> has assessed Rico Verhoeven\u2019s chances of winning a major title, picturing a scenario where he ends up facing <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/anthony-joshua\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anthony Joshua<\/a> for some version of the heavyweight championship.<\/p>\n<p>The former long-reigning kickboxing champion was supposed to collide with \u2018AJ\u2019 earlier this year, only to instead secure a world title opportunity against <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/oleksandr-usyk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oleksandr Usyk<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This was only his second professional boxing match, yet Verhoeven nonetheless gave a tremendous account of himself last month, somehow managing to take Usyk into round 11.<\/p>\n<p>It then came as a controversial result when <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/oleksandr-usyk-vs-rico-verhoeven-live\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Verhoeven was stopped on his feet following a heavy knockdown<\/a>, with referee Mark Lyson waving him off after the bell had sounded.<\/p>\n<p>At that point, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/cn0p8wyy5jno\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the Dutchman had built a slight lead on one of the judges\u2019 scorecards<\/a>, making a mockery of the pre-fight betting odds while earning himself a No.8 ranking with the WBC.<\/p>\n<p>Verhoeven could therefore find himself in another heavyweight title fight before long, but will he enjoy the same success that he did against Usyk?<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/bettinglounge.co.uk\/blog\/exclusive-interview-with-roy-jones-jr\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BettingLounge<\/a>, Hall of Famer Jones suggested that a hard-hitting opponent like Joshua, for instance, is likely to pose greater problems than Usyk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan Rico win a world title? You\u2019ve got to remember, styles make fights. To me, Usyk has never been the most explosive puncher, but he is a brilliant boxer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTyson Fury has never been the most explosive puncher, but he is a brilliant boxer as well. But guys like [Daniel] Dubois, Joshua, Moses [Itauma] \u2013 these guys can punch. So they\u2019re going to find out what [Verhoeven] can take.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not going to just guarantee that he can win a title, because different styles make different fights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another point to consider is that, while Verhoeven represented unfamiliar territory for Usyk, opponents can now use 11 rounds of footage to analyse his style.<\/p>\n<p>Joshua could also seek additional intel from Usyk, given that he now shares a gym with the 39-year-old Ukrainian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roy Jones Jr has assessed Rico Verhoeven\u2019s chances of winning a major title, picturing a scenario where he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-648786","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\/648786","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=648786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}