- Nine days from the Giza ring walks, Usyk vs Verhoeven is locked, the WBC paperwork has cleared, and the Joshua sparring story has gone from rumour to footage.
- Verhoeven's Peter Fury camp is closing in on the GLORY heavyweight at 124 kilos. Usyk weighed in at 102 in Spain on Tuesday — the lightest he has been at heavyweight since 2022.
- Luke's pick is unchanged — Usyk by stoppage between rounds five and seven. The undercard is the gravy. The Pyramids are the legacy.
Right Then — Nine Days, And The Giza Build Has Gone Quiet
Right then. Nine days from the ring walks at the Giza Necropolis, Oleksandr Usyk's WBC heavyweight title defence against Rico Verhoeven has settled into the strange quiet that always arrives ten days out from a real fight. The Spanish camp in Gandia has the cameras turned off. Peter Fury's camp with Verhoeven in Holland have stopped releasing sparring snippets. Eddie Hearn has filed the final paperwork with the WBC. The pyramids are not moving. Everyone is just waiting now.
Make no mistake — this is the strangest big-event card of the 2026 boxing calendar, and most of the strangeness has nothing to do with the fact that the venue is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The strangeness is that the second name on the marquee, Verhoeven, is one professional boxing fight into his career. The Glory in Giza poster is, on a sporting basis, a pound-for-pound number one defending against a man who has fought more kickboxing world finals than he has had professional boxing rounds. That is a hard sentence to type without laughing, and it is exactly why Hearn has been able to sell the building out.
What The Joshua Sparring Footage Actually Showed
The Spain camp story has been one of the better build-ups of the year. Anthony Joshua spent four days in Gandia last week working specifically as Usyk's heavy, tall southpaw look — a little-reported but completely real piece of fight prep that gives Usyk a 240-pound, 6'6" body to bounce off in the gym before he goes to face a 275-pound Dutchman in the desert. The footage that leaked on Tuesday is short and shaky and shows almost nothing tactical. What it does show is a Usyk who looks faster than he did against Dubois II, and a Joshua who is properly working — not posing — in the rounds.
Levels above the usual celebrity-camp piece. Joshua is in real shape for his Prenga fight on July 25. Usyk is in real shape for Verhoeven on May 23. Both men are using the camp to do work the other one needs. That is what proper heavyweight relationships look like once the ten-million-pound payday is no longer the only conversation in the room.
Verhoeven, 124 Kilos And A Peter Fury Game Plan
The Verhoeven number that everyone keeps repeating — 125.1 kilos, or about 275 pounds — is, according to people inside the Holland camp, already obsolete. He is closer to 124 now and Peter Fury is reportedly trying to take him another two off without sapping his power. The Peter Fury game plan is straightforward enough — long jab, body work in the second half, force Usyk to plant his feet and hit back. None of that is wrong on a chalkboard. All of it requires Verhoeven to be in there for six rounds before the plan starts to bear fruit, and that is the part nobody on the boxing side actually believes will happen.
The Undercard Pulls Its Weight
If you are paying for the pay-per-view for the Pyramids fight, the undercard is genuinely the gravy. Hamzah Sheeraz against Jack Catterall in a real junior middleweight title eliminator is one of the better all-British matchups of the year. Khaleel Majid is on the bill in a step-up. The Texan heavyweight Frank Sanchez has an IBF eliminator booked against Richard Torrez Jr. Top to bottom this is one of the best-stacked undercards Hearn has ever put together, and that is before you remember that the main event is being staged in front of a structure built by people who had not invented the wheel yet.
Luke's Prediction
Pick is unchanged — Usyk by stoppage between rounds five and seven. Verhoeven will land. Verhoeven will not be embarrassed. Peter Fury's work in camp will mean Verhoeven knows what to do when he gets cracked first time, and the fanbase will get a quotable moment in the second round when his right hand actually finds Usyk's chin. None of that is the same as winning rounds against the cleanest southpaw at heavyweight in twenty years.
Around round four Usyk starts banking the body shots that broke Tyson Fury down the stretch in Riyadh. By round six Verhoeven's legs have stopped working the way a kickboxer's legs are supposed to work, and the corner is making the call before the referee does. Usyk goes home with the WBC belt, Verhoeven goes home with the story he is going to dine out on for ten years, and the Pyramids spend the night looking exactly the same as they have for 4,500 years. Brilliant fight to watch. Awful fight to bet on. The right night for the sport.