USYK VS VERHOEVEN - FULL FIGHT PREVIEW AND BREAKDOWN
In terms of boxing spectacles, it really does not get much bigger than a heavyweight world title fight in front of one of the eight wonders of the world. No, not York Hall — the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt — and on Saturday night, one of the best boxers of all time in Oleksandr Usyk will be defending his heavyweight titles against one of the best, if not the best, heavyweight kickboxers in Rico Verhoeven right in front of the iconic landmark.
On paper, the fight is a complete mismatch. The undefeated Usyk, who’s beaten pretty much everyone at cruiserweight and heavyweight over the past decade, is up against Verhoeven, who has had just one fight as a professional boxer — and even that was 12 years ago.
We’ll be previewing the fight and taking a look at both fighters, delving into if and how Verhoeven could achieve the unthinkable by becoming the first man to beat Usyk in the paid ranks in just his second professional fight as a boxer.
Arguably one of the greatest fighters of all time, and most certainly one of the greatest fighters of this generation, Olympic gold medallist Oleksandr Usyk has dominated the heavier weights in boxing over the past decade.
He galloped to undisputed status in the cruiserweight division by dispatching the likes of Mairis Briedis, Tony Bellew and Murat Gassiev before turning his attention to the heavier boys in the heavyweight division.
Many, at the time of Usyk moving up to heavyweight, believed he would be too small to pose a real threat to the likes of Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder.
Oh, how wrong they were.
Eight fights, eight wins, with six of those victories coming in fights against Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois — Usyk has been dominant, and that’s probably the understatement of the year.
He became a two-weight undisputed champion when beating Fury back in 2024 before going on to vacate the IBF, but then winning it back when stopping Daniel Dubois for a second time in his last fight in July of last year.
This is a fighter who will go down in the history books as one of the best to ever do it, and the scary thing is, at the age of 39, he looks like he’s getting even better.
On Saturday night, he comes up against another man who has dominated the heavyweight division over the past 10 years, but this time in GLORY Kickboxing.
Highly regarded as the best heavyweight kickboxer of all time, Rico Verhoeven’s dominance at the top of the GLORY heavyweight division has been nothing short of incredible.
Unbeaten in over 10 years, which includes 22 straight wins, the Dutchman has quite literally forgotten how to lose.
One of the most technically rounded fighters in kickboxing as a whole, this weekend he aims to achieve greatness by taking on one of the greatest of all time — but this time in boxing.
This won’t be Verhoeven’s boxing debut, though.
Just one month before becoming GLORY Heavyweight Champion for the first time back in 2014, he stopped Janos Finfera in the second round on his professional boxing debut in Germany.
Now, over 12 years on, he faces the monumental task of becoming the first man to beat Oleksandr Usyk.
So, how does he do it?
Well, that could possibly be the impossible question. However, this is heavyweight boxing and, in heavyweight boxing, weird s*it happens — and this may well end up being one of those times.
Many of you will be unfamiliar with Verhoeven’s style, so firstly, let’s take a look at what he does well.
For starters — and the most obvious strength — is his own strength and size. Standing at 6’5”, he’s a big, strong lad. Weighing around 260lbs, he’s going to have a big size advantage over Usyk, and he needs to use that to his advantage as much as he can.
Secondly, his hands. For a big man, his hand speed is extremely good and he’s very busy with that lead hand, which will be crucial against Usyk. He doesn’t always throw it, but he’s very twitchy with it and that’ll be a good way to distract Usyk, especially when the Ukrainian fights out of the southpaw stance.
Thirdly, Verhoeven’s chin and conditioning are quite literally INSANE. Usyk isn’t renowned for his punch power, so the chances of him stopping Verhoeven with one punch are extremely slim. With that in mind, it could mean Verhoeven looks to get on the front foot early and maybe become a punchbag for a couple of rounds, but look to use his strength to get his own work off.
Lastly, it’s his awkward kickboxing style. Usyk has undoubtedly seen pretty much every style there is in the amateurs and pros, but he’s probably rarely seen a style as awkward as Verhoeven’s.
Usyk is notorious for taking a round or two to download data and then get to work but, in this case, it may take slightly longer.
Despite these positives, there are a few areas of concern for the kickboxing legend. He can tend to be very heavy on the feet, which will obviously suit someone like Usyk to a tee, and he does have a tendency to leave his hands quite low.
Another concern is the fact that, despite his brilliant cardio, Verhoeven is only used to boxing five three-minute rounds.
That alone suggests that he may just give himself the first half of the fight to try and get Usyk out of there.
Bearing in mind the above, how can both men win the fight?
For Usyk, it’s simple. He just has to do what he’s done the other 24 times as a professional: fight his fight, don’t get dragged into a tear-up, and use his incredibly high boxing IQ to move himself around the ring and, as he has done on many occasions in the past, toy with his opponent.
If the likes of Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois and Mairis Briedis couldn’t crack the Usyk code, you’d think that it’s going to be a near-enough impossible task for Verhoeven to do so but, like I said previously, this is heavyweight boxing and anything can happen.
For the Dutchman, he needs to upset Usyk’s rhythm early and basically try to overpower him.
He isn’t deluded enough to think he is going to outbox him, so he needs to be intelligently reckless. He’s got Peter Fury in his corner, the man who masterminded Tyson Fury’s win over Usyk’s fellow countryman Wladimir Klitschko 11 years ago, so that is a huge positive for Rico.
If there’s one weakness that Usyk has shown in the past, it’s his body. Like everyone else on the planet, he doesn’t like getting hit to the body and, in the past, his poker face hasn’t been the best when his opposition have had success to the breadbasket.
If — and it is a big if — Rico can get on Usyk’s chest and really rip into that body and make it a proper dogfight, the chances of him becoming heavyweight boxing champion of the world increase massively.
However, boxers with heaps more experience than him haven’t been able to crack the Usyk code, so it’ll be an uphill task for him to become the first.
This is heavyweight boxing though and, in heavyweight boxing, expect the unexpected.
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