World champion Oleksandr Usyk will not defend his heavyweight crown against a boxer in May, but against kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven in a large-scale spectacle at the pyramids of Giza. This angers a former boxing champion and insider.
The fact that the WBC association has approved Usyk’s cash spectacle in Egypt against Verhoeven as a world championship fight makes former light welterweight world champion Paulie Malinaggi angry and stunned.
“Under no circumstances should this be approved as a title fight. This is crazy – and an insult to the sport of boxing,” Maligaggi raged at “boxingscene.com”.
Usyk will face kickboxing champion Verhoeven on May 23 at the Giza Pyramids. Although the Dutchman has only fought one professional fight as a boxer – in 2014! -, the WBC has accepted the duel as a fight for Usyk’s WBC crown.
As world champion, Usyk has “a responsibility,” commented Malinaggi. Until the fight against Verhoeven, the 39-year-old Ukrainian had always boxed the best in the heavyweight division, “which has led some to think he deserves a break from that. But as champion he should be constantly fighting the best, and instead he is giving a title shot to an opponent who doesn’t deserve it.”
The winner of the WBO World Championship between Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois on May 9th in London “would have been a much more worthy opponent,” said the American. This also applies to Germany’s boxing star Agit Kabayel, who Malinaggi sees as being treated unfairly. “How is that fair to him?”
Boxing expert: Verhoeven has zero chance against Usyk
As WBC interim world champion, Kabayel is Usyk’s mandatory challenger and has been waiting for his chance since mid-2024. The WBC has ordered that Usyk must defend his world title against the German after the Verhoeven fight.
Usyk’s World Championship duel with Verhoeven was “not an exhibition fight,” Malinaggi criticized the official nature of the event. The kickboxer simply skips the line of Usyk challengers in boxing. Usyk, who has been exemplary so far, will become “part of the problem” in boxing.
Malinaggi doesn’t believe that the 36-year-old Verhoeven has even the slightest chance in the ring. “The distance for kicks for a kickboxer is completely different than the range of the fists for a boxer. The footwork must therefore also be different. Some skills can be transferred, but that doesn’t happen overnight – especially not against an opponent like Usyk,” explained the 45-year-old: “I see absolutely nothing about Verhoeven that suggests he has a chance.”
