With only nine days left until Oleksandr Usyk defends his WBC heavyweight world title against Rico Verhoeven, the WBA federation has decided to allow him to defend his belt as well.

Rico Verhoeven, considered a Dutch kickboxing legend, boasts a professional boxing record of just 1-0; that victory came over 12 years ago against Janos Finfera, who was 0-5 at the time.

As a result, when his unconventional fight with Usyk was announced, it was not expected that the undefeated Ukrainian’s belts would be in danger, and yet although the position of the WBA and IBF was unclear, the WBC controversially agreed to sanction the fight as a fight for the world heavyweight title.

This has led to speculation that the WBA and IBF may strip Usyk of his titles along with Murat Gassiev [WBA] and the winner of the Frank Sanchez vs. Richard Torrez Jr. fight. [IBF] he will likely benefit from this and either be elevated to champion status or set up for a free title fight in their respective bodies.

However, in an intriguing yet confusing twist, The WBA suddenly announced the terms of the “title fight” after a “special request”. They have now determined that Usyk’s victory will count as a successful title defense, but if Verhoeven were to create such an unusual situation, “the WBA Championship Committee will then review his [Usyk’s] status’.

“If Usyk emerges victorious, the fight will be officially recognized as a successful title defense. If the champion loses, the WBA Championship Committee will review his status and determine the next course of action regarding the heavyweight championship.”

Therefore, while Usyk can officially retain his WBA heavyweight title with a triumph next Saturday, unranked Verhoeven will not be able to claim the belt.

Although the WBA revealed that a victory for Verhoeven would allow him to enter its heavyweight rankings.

“With all due respect, but first and foremost, the reasons why there is enough money to do this is, as we both know and have discussed many times, that both Tyson and Joshua have slightly different deals with their promoters than other fighters because they are not subject to a broadcasting obligation,” Simon said on talkSport Boxing.

“So when Tyson Fury does a deal, he doesn’t necessarily have to be on a broadcaster that Frank Warren or Eddie Hearn is contracted to.

“Where is this fight? Netflix, right?

“So with all due respect and I mean no disrespect to either Frank or Eddie, neither of them are promoting it.

“It’s a deal with Netflix that ultimately includes some of Turki Alalshikh’s money, so Dana is throwing her two pence into the ring.

“But Eddie promotes AJ and Frank promotes Tyson, so they must be involved.”