Right then. Two weeks tomorrow. Oleksandr Usyk walks into the most beautiful boxing setting of the year — the floor of the desert, the Pyramids of Giza behind the ring, a 50,000-seat temporary build that's been going up since February — and defends his WBC heavyweight belt against the man who held the Glory Kickboxing strap for nearly a decade. Rico Verhoeven's come over to boxing on a Riyadh Season cheque to do something nobody from the kickboxing side has done since Mark Hunt — be competitive against a top-five professional heavyweight.
Last night's result in Manchester has changed the read on this fight. Not the prediction — Usyk still wins by a country mile. But the post-fight calendar that opens up after May 23 is now clear in a way it wasn't yesterday morning. Let's not beat around the bush — Verhoeven was a sideshow on the calendar. Now he's the warm-up for the autumn unification.
What Last Night Did To The Calendar
Dubois stopping Wardley in eleven means the WBO is on Dubois' shoulder. Usyk already wears the WBA, the WBC and the IBF. If Usyk beats Verhoeven on May 23 — and he will — the entire division now points to one fight: Usyk-Dubois II for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world. That is the fight every promoter on earth wants. Frank Warren wants it. Eddie Hearn wants it. Turki Alalshikh wants it.
The wrinkle is the WBC. Agit Kabayel is the mandatory and Sulaiman has been making noises about Usyk's calendar. Warren said in the Co-op Live ring last night that "if Usyk doesn't fight Kabayel after Verhoeven, the WBC will strip him." That's not a quote made up for theatre — that's the road map. Usyk picks Dubois II, Kabayel gets a vacant WBC fight against Dubois — or against the loser of Hrgovic-Allen — and the autumn becomes the most stacked heavyweight schedule of the decade.
The Verhoeven Question
I'll say what I said in my three-weeks-out piece. Verhoeven is not a tomato can. He's a 6'5" 275lb athlete with twenty years of striking experience, has trained for boxing in Manchester with the Peter Fury team since November, and has been sparring 80 rounds a week. The kickboxing crowd think he can crack Usyk open. They're wrong. But they're not as wrong as the boxing-only crowd who think he gets stopped in three.
Verhoeven's chin will hold. Usyk doesn't have one-punch power. The fight will go six, seven, eight rounds — and the questions will be about the Verhoeven gas tank in unfamiliar 12-round territory, about Verhoeven's defensive boxing posture (he's still high-guarded, still kickboxing-square in his stance, even with six months in the boxing gym), and about Usyk's ability to land the body work that has finished his last three fights inside.
The Camp Reports From Both Sides
Usyk is in Gandia, Spain, finishing the heat phase of camp. He's been in 38°C training sessions since April, which is slightly above the Giza forecast for fight night. Sergiy Lapin says Usyk is the leanest he's ever been at this stage — 224lbs as of Wednesday — and that he'll be 222 at the weigh-in. That's three pounds lighter than for Joshua II.
Verhoeven's camp at the Peter Fury gym in Manchester broke up on Friday. He's now in Sicily for a fortnight of acclimatisation and final tuning before flying to Cairo on the 19th. Peter Fury — interviewed by Sky on Wednesday — said Verhoeven was "the best learner I've had in twenty years." That's a Peter Fury quote, not a press release. He doesn't say things like that for show.
The Setting
I'll keep banging this drum because the setting is one of the most important things about this fight. The ring will be on the desert floor on the south face of the Khufu pyramid. The seating bowl is temporary — a 50,000-capacity, three-tiered structure that's been on site since February. The pyramid is lit. It is, in fact, going to be the most beautiful boxing setting in the sport's modern history. Saudi money paid for it; Egyptian government cleared the site; DAZN will run the pictures. If you have the chance to watch this in 4K, watch it in 4K.
Luke's Read
I had Usyk by stoppage round eight three weeks out, and 13 days out I'm not moving. Verhoeven will land. He'll land hard. Round three or round four he'll have one moment that gets the kickboxing forums going. But the volume difference is too large, the body work is too clean, and Usyk's angles are levels above what any kickboxer has ever boxed against. Round eight. Body shot. Verhoeven down on a knee.
Then we have the autumn. Usyk v Dubois II for the undisputed in November or December. Most likely Riyadh, possibly London if the money lands. Kabayel picks up a WBC fight off the back. Wardley activates the rematch clause for early 2027. Joshua tunes up against Prenga on July 25 and meets Fury in November. The British heavyweight calendar of the decade. Thirteen days to go.