Kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven
is confident that his punching power will translate to elite level professional boxing when he faces Oleksandr Usyk on May 23 in Egypt.“When I land my best punch on him, of course, he will go down. It’s, like, a 20 kilo weight difference,” Verhoeven says. “He’s like a built-up cruiserweight, and I’m like a naturally-born heavyweight. That’s a big difference.”
The 37-year-old Verhoeven is listed at 6’5” and usually will fight around 270 lbs, which is definitely bigger
than the 39-year-old Usyk, who is listed at 6’3” and has been right around 225 lbs in his last three fights, which were two wins over Tyson Fury and one over Daniel Dubois.
It’s true that Usyk is a former cruiserweight, but “he’s really a cruiserweight!” has been the rally cry of opponents since he moved up to the heavyweight division in 2019. It has not stopped him; he’s twice become undisputed champion of the world, even as Fury — before losing to Usyk twice — downplayed him even further as a “middleweight” before they fought.
Verhoeven is absolutely big and strong enough to knock Usyk out if he lands the right shot. Landing it clean on a genuine master boxer will be the big problem. And Verhoeven knows that, unless he’s far more cluelessly arrogant than I suspect. But his mindset may be that it only takes one, and everyone makes mistakes.
At any rate, it’s the only shot he has in the fight. He can’t out-box Usyk. He has to knock him out to win.
