Rico Verhoeven, the former Glory heavyweight champion, shared details about how the idea for his fight with Oleksandr Usyk, who holds the WBC, WBA, IBO, and IBF titles, came about.
On May 23 in Egypt, during the boxing evening The Ring: Glory in Giza, they will meet in the ring for the WBC heavyweight title.
“Initially, we planned a fight with Anthony Joshua, but unfortunately, due to the tragic death of his friends in a car accident, that bout was postponed. My coach Peter Fury suggested, ‘Why not have a fight with Usyk?’ I liked the idea, but I wasn’t sure if he was interested. We reached out to his team, and everything started to develop. Soon I learned that Oleksandr was ready for the fight and showed interest,” Verhoeven said in an interview with DAZN.
Usyk last stepped into the ring in July 2025, when he knocked out Daniel Dubois in the fifth round. The Ukrainian boxer has 24 wins (15 of them by knockout) and no losses.
As for Verhoeven, his last fight took place in June 2025 at the Glory 100 tournament, where he won against Artem Vakhitov by unanimous decision. In kickboxing, he has 66 wins (21 by knockout) and ten losses.
Verhoeven's statement: The idea for the fight with Usyk arose thanks to Fury first appeared on K-News.
