- Ten days from the May 23 ring walks at the Giza Necropolis, Usyk vs Verhoeven remains one of the strangest big-event matchups of the modern era.
- Usyk's WBC title is on the line. The WBA and IBF straps are not — they're being held out for the bigger fights waiting in Q4.
- Verhoeven, 6'5", 125 kg and a GLORY heavyweight legend, is one professional boxing fight into his career. Make no mistake — this is the toughest first proper boxing fight anyone has ever taken.
Right Then — Ten Days From The Pyramids, And The Story Has Already Started
Right then. Ten days from the ring walks at the Giza Necropolis, with the Pyramids 4,500 years old in the background and the Sphinx half a mile away, Oleksandr Usyk will defend the WBC heavyweight title against Rico Verhoeven on a Matchroom-promoted DAZN pay-per-view that is, in every honest sense, like nothing else on the 2026 boxing calendar.
Let's not beat around the bush. This is not a fight you make on sporting merit. It is a fight you make because the venue is mad, the storyline is mad, and one of the two participants is a global combat-sports figure with a fanbase Eddie Hearn does not need to explain to anybody in continental Europe. It is also a fight you make because Usyk, on a long enough timeline, has been quietly running out of conventional opponents at heavyweight.
The Verhoeven Question
Make no mistake — Rico Verhoeven is not a clueless mark. He is a 6'5", 125-kilogram Dutch kickboxing legend who held the GLORY heavyweight title for the best part of a decade, has shared a ring with every elite striker on the planet, and has been training under Peter Fury for the better part of a year. He has one professional boxing fight to his record, and that record is one-and-zero.
The trouble is the second name on the marquee is Oleksandr Usyk. There is not a professional boxing fight in the world right now that is harder to take as your second one. Usyk is two-time undisputed, the cleanest southpaw technician at heavyweight in two decades, and a former cruiserweight king who out-thinks people on a level the GLORY kickboxing tour does not really teach you to deal with.
Why Usyk Is Doing This At All
This is the question everyone keeps quietly asking. Usyk is at 39 years old. He has been a unified champion at two weight classes. He has a Fury rematch and a probable Joshua-Fury winner waiting for him at the end of the year. Why spend a 12-round championship round with Verhoeven on May 23?
The answer is roughly three parts business, one part legacy. The pyramids card is a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar event including site fees. The WBC is happy. The WBA and IBF have left their belts at home — Usyk is keeping them parked for the Q4 fight that genuinely matters. And the Glory in Giza staging means Usyk gets to do something nobody else in heavyweight history has done: defend a world title in front of the Pyramids. He will retire one day, and that one sentence will be on every retrospective. That is worth a fight you should win, against a man who is not really a boxer yet.
The 125kg Detail
Verhoeven's weigh-in number — 125.1 kg, or about 275 pounds — is one of the proper details in this build-up. That is roughly 50 pounds more than Usyk and easily the heaviest opponent Usyk has ever shared a ring with at heavyweight. Joshua came in at 240. Fury, even at his largest, was 277. Verhoeven, at his stated weight, would land somewhere between the two — but with kickboxer's footwork on top.
The Undercard Earns Its Money
If you are buying the pay-per-view for the main event, the undercard is gravy. Hamzah Sheeraz against Jack Catterall in a junior middleweight title eliminator is one of the better British fights of 2026, and the rest of the card is built smartly to keep DAZN's domestic audiences engaged regardless of what happens between Usyk and Verhoeven. Hearn has stacked it. Class card top to bottom.
Luke's Prediction
Usyk by stoppage between rounds five and seven. Verhoeven will not be embarrassed. He will land one or two clean shots, the kickboxing fanbase will get a quotable moment, and Peter Fury's work in camp will have made sure his man knows what to do under pressure. None of that is the same as winning rounds against the best technical heavyweight of the century.
Around round four Usyk will start finding the right hand to the body that he used against Dubois and Joshua — and once Verhoeven's structure starts buckling, the Ukrainian will close the show with the same patient cruelty we've seen for ten years. Verhoeven goes home with a story, Usyk goes home with the belt, and Glory in Giza becomes one of the strangest, best-staged main-event nights of the year. Brilliant fight to watch. Not, in fairness, a brilliant fight to bet on.