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Oleksandr Usyk, who has not fought since a fifth-round knockout of Daniel Dubois at Wembley in July, will defend his WBC heavyweight title against a kickboxer at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
The bout with Rico Verhoeven, dubbed “Glory in Giza”, will be the first title fight held in Egypt, according to The Ring magazine, on 23 May and will be streamed live on Dazn.
Verhoeven, the 36-year-old Dutch heavyweight, is 66-10 with 21 KOs as a kickboxer, has sparred in the past with Tyson Fury and had one professional bout in 2014, which he won by a knockout.
“I truly respect people who reach the very top in their sport,” Usyk said in a statement. “Rico is one of them – a powerful athlete and a great champion. He’s truly the king of kickboxing. Being a champion isn’t just about belts. I’m ready and looking forward to meeting him in the ring. It’s going to be a unique experience for both of us, a big night is coming.”
The twice undisputed heavyweight champion Usyk, who holds the WBA, WBC and IBF belts, has won six fights in four years, with two wins each over Anthony Joshua, Fury and Dubois. He vacated his WBO title in November instead of facing Fabio Wardley, the 31-year-old British heavyweight.
“I spent 12 years as the undisputed heavyweight kickboxing champion and accomplished everything I set out to accomplish,” Verhoeven said. “But staying at the top for that long didn’t take away from the hunger, it strengthened it. Usyk is the undisputed in boxing. That’s the kind of challenge that motivated me. Undisputed versus undisputed. The best versus the best.”
Wardley, who will defend the WBO title against Dubois on 9 May in Manchester, was disappointed by the news. “I don’t feel like it’s a real, genuine challenge nor someone that deserves the shot,” he told Sky Sports. “But I do understand or do concede Usyk is at a point in his career … where he’s able to do what he wants for a bit in that sense. He’s earned the position to … take an easy fight.”
The mismatch against the backdrop of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world echoes the recent spectacle of the former heavyweight champion Joshua’s bout against the YouTuber Jake Paul in Miami, which was streamed globally to Netflix’s roughly 300m subscribers.
