Oleksandr Usyk and Rico Verhoeven kicked off fight week for their heavyweight clash by going face-to-face at Great Sphinx of Giza. The two fighters square off on Saturday, May 23, with the WBC title on the line.
Ukraine’s three-time, two-division undisputed champion Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) enters the ring as the unified IBF, WBA, and WBC champion. With a victory, he would retain his WBC title while continuing his reign across all three sanctioning bodies, with the WBA also counting the bout as a successful title defense.
Former kickboxing champion Verhoeven (1-0, 1 KO) of the Netherlands looks to pull off an upset and become a boxing world champion in just his second professional fight. If he wins, he will only be recognized as champion by the WBC, while the IBF and WBA titles would become vacant.
See the photos below as Usyk and Verhoeven face off and pose ahead of their clash at Pyramids of Giza.
Usyk vs Verhoeven undercard
- Hamzah Sheeraz (22-0-1, 18 KOs) vs. Alem Begic (29-0-1, 23 KOs), vacant WBO super middleweight title
- Jack Catterall (32-2, 14 KOs) vs. Shakhram Giyasov (17-0, 10 KOs), vacant WBA “Regular” welterweight title
- Frank Sanchez (25-1, 18 KOs) vs. Richard Torrez Jr. (14-0, 12 KOs), WBC Americas and WBO NABO heavyweight titles
- Mizuki Hiruta (10-0, 2 KOs) vs. Mai Soliman (10-1, 6 KOs), WBO super flyweight title