{"id":676702,"date":"2026-07-06T13:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T13:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/676702\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T13:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T13:08:11","slug":"rico-verhoeven-could-land-another-immediate-world-title-shot-against-new-heavyweight-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/676702\/","title":{"rendered":"Rico Verhoeven could land another immediate world title shot against new heavyweight champion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite coming off a defeat to Oleksandr Usyk, former long-reigning kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven could soon land another world title shot, this time at a 50,000-seat stadium.<\/p>\n<p>The 37-year-old gave a tremendous account of himself in May, coming tantalisingly close to pulling off a major upset against the lineal heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to that, Verhoeven\u2019s only professional boxing match came against a 0-5 journeyman, who he stopped in round two of their 2014 encounter.<\/p>\n<p>Yet despite his lack of pugilistic experience, the Dutchman was presented with an opportunity to claim Usyk\u2019s WBC title in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>The Ukrainian had been made an almighty favourite but, rather astonishingly, it was Verhoeven who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/cn0p8wyy5jno\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">built a slight lead on one of the judges\u2019 scorecards<\/a> through 10 rounds.<\/p>\n<p>This remarkable achievement was then followed by an 11th-round knockdown, with referee Mark Lyson waving Verhoeven off on his feet after the bell had sounded.<\/p>\n<p>Subsequently, the kickboxing legend entered the WBC rankings at No.8, while <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/usyk-announces-final-decision-on-belts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Usyk has now vacated his three belts<\/a> and afforded Agit Kabayel an upgrade from \u2018interim\u2019 to full WBC champion.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/HLJKcWQxLbI?si=nRDxFnYdcMaeRI2p\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Playbook Boxing<\/a>, Kabayel\u2019s manager, Spencer Brown, proposed a potential voluntary title defence against Verhoeven.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHolland\u2019s very close to Germany; it\u2019s an hour away. [Verhoeven would] bring massive support, and I think that would fill 50,000 in Germany.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a sensible fight. I think Oleksandr Usyk won the fight fair and square \u2026 [But] I thought [Verhoeven] put up an unbelievable performance. I\u2019d never seen anything like it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kabayel claimed his \u2018interim\u2019 title with a sixth-round stoppage of Zhilei Zhang in February 2025, underlining his status as one of the division\u2019s most formidable body punchers.<\/p>\n<p>Now coming off a third-round finish over Damian Knyba in Germany, the unbeaten 33-year-old will be eager to defend his new strap later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite coming off a defeat to Oleksandr Usyk, former long-reigning kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven could soon land another&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-676702","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\/676702","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=676702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}