Rico Verhoeven’s move into boxing reshapes heavyweight matchups as Usyk defends WBC title at the Pyramids

The decision to pit Oleksandr Usyk against rico verhoeven for the WBC heavyweight title matters because it stretches the boundaries between combat sports and expands where high-profile title fights can take place. Fans, promoters and governing bodies will feel the immediate effects: unusual matchmaking, a global staging in Egypt, and renewed questions about how records and credentials translate across disciplines.

Rico Verhoeven’s presence shifts the heavyweight picture — consequences and early signals

Here’s the part that matters: this bout places a decorated kickboxer, Rico Verhoeven, directly into a world-title boxing defense. That raises practical consequences for matchmaking standards and audience expectations. The real question now is how a long, dominant run in kickboxing will be weighed against a boxing champion’s ring record when the bout outcome is used to judge standing in either sport.

What’s easy to miss is the scale of Verhoeven’s kickboxing run — multiple years and more than a dozen title defenses — which makes this less of a novelty and more of a deliberate cross-sport experiment.

Event details and the facts that matter for May 23

Embedded facts: Oleksandr Usyk will put the WBC heavyweight title on the line against Rico Verhoeven on May 23 at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. The event is billed as "Glory of Giza: Undefeated Icons" and will be presented a live, exclusive stream. Usyk enters this fight with an undefeated professional boxing record and recent knockout momentum; Verhoeven arrives as a decorated kickboxer with prior single-event experience in boxing and one MMA outing.

• Date and place: May 23 — Pyramids of Giza, Egypt.
• Event name: "Glory of Giza: Undefeated Icons. "
• Title: WBC heavyweight title will be defended by Oleksandr Usyk.
• Usyk snapshot: 24-0 professional boxing record, with 15 KOs; most recent win was a fifth-round knockout of Daniel Dubois.
• Verhoeven snapshot: kickboxing record listed as 66-10; held the Glory heavyweight title for 4, 220 days with 13 successful defenses (2013–2025); one prior professional boxing win (knockout of Janos Finfera in 2014); one MMA TKO win in 2015.
• Availability: will stream live and exclusively through a streaming platform; scheduling is subject to change.

Promoters revealed the matchup publicly and the build-up has included social-media hints from Usyk. Usyk had considered other opponents but chose this cross-discipline challenge instead, and Verhoeven has framed the fight as a top-level confrontation between champions from different codes.

Micro Q&A (quick clarifications):

• Q: Why is this bout unusual? A: It matches a current WBC heavyweight boxing champion against a legendary kickboxer in a sanctioned boxing title defense, staged at an iconic global venue.
• Q: Has Verhoeven boxed before? A: He has one documented professional boxing win and also a TKO victory in MMA, alongside a long kickboxing reign.
• Q: Is the title on the line? A: Yes — Usyk will defend the WBC heavyweight title.

One forward-looking signal to watch is how the boxing community treats the result: whether a win by Verhoeven is framed as a validation of cross-discipline competitiveness or an exceptional, context-driven upset. Conversely, a Usyk victory would be read as a confirmation of the sport-specific gap between elite boxing and elite kickboxing.

Timeline rewind: Usyk’s most recent ring victory cited here was a fifth-round knockout of Daniel Dubois; Verhoeven’s longest run as the Glory heavyweight titleholder stretched from 2013 to 2025 with 13 defenses. These anchor points underline why both fighters characterize the matchup as top-level.

The real test will be how regulators, fans and future matchmakers interpret the sporting and commercial fallout of a title fight staged so explicitly as a cross-code event.

Writer’s aside: It’s easy to overlook how deliberately this pairing was crafted — it’s not a last-minute novelty but a staged confrontation between sustained champions from different rings.