Boxing
Usyk will defend his WBC title against Rico Verhoeven at the Pyramids of Giza
Published
3 months agoon
Unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk will defend his WBC heavyweight title against former kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven on Saturday, May 23 at the Giza Pyramids in Egypt, His Excellency Turki Alalshikh and Ring Magazine announced on Friday. The event, called “Glory in Giza”, will be broadcast worldwide and exclusively online DAZN.
The fight will be the first professional boxing event held at the historic archaic Egyptian venue and the first time Usyk, who has fought in seven countries in his career, will compete in North Africa.
Usyk continues his heavyweight reign
Usyk (24-0, 15 KO) returns to the ring for the first time since he completely knocked out Daniel Dubois in the fifth round in July 2025 and thanks to this fight he regained the undisputed heavyweight title. The 39-year-old Ukrainian had previously unified the division with back-to-back victories over Tyson Fury in Riyad in 2024 – a split decision victory followed by a unanimous triumph in the rematch.
After losing his WBO title, Usyk enters the fight against Verhoeven as the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight champion. A fight with Deontay Wilder was widely discussed, but Wilder opted to face Derek Chisora instead, leaving Usyk to take on an unconventional challenge.
“I truly respect people who reach the top in their sport,” Usyk said in a statement. “Rico is one of them – a powerful athlete and a great champion. Being a champion is not just about belts. It is about years of demanding work, discipline and faith. I respect his journey – he is the true king of kickboxing. But this is boxing – a different game, with its own rules and its own kings.
Verhoeven: A kickboxing legend enters boxing
Verhoeven, 36, is widely considered one of the best heavyweight kickboxers in the history of the sport. The Dutchman held it Glory to Kickboxing heavyweight title for over 4,200 days – over 11 years in a row – and compiled a record of 66-10 with 21 knockouts in 76 professional kickboxing bouts. He holds the Glory record for most title fight victories (14), most consecutive title defenses (13), most total wins (28), and longest winning streak (27).
Verhoeven made his last kickboxing defense in June 2025, defeating former Glory delicate heavyweight champion Artem Vakhitov by unanimous decision at Glory 100. He announced his retirement from the sport the following November.
However, his boxing experience is constrained. Verhoeven’s lone professional boxing fight came in April 2014, a second-round knockout of Janos Finfera at Mix Fight XV in Darmstadt, Germany. He also has a 1-0 MMA record, finishing Viktor Bogutzki via first-round TKO in 2015. However, he had not competed under professional boxing rules for almost twelve years.
“I spent twelve years as the undisputed heavyweight kickboxing champion and achieved everything I wanted to achieve,” Verhoeven said. “But staying at the top for so long didn’t eliminate the hunger, in fact it made it stronger. I wasn’t looking for comfort, so I started looking for the highest challenge available in another world. Usyk is undisputed in boxing. That’s the kind of challenge that motivates me. Undisputed versus undisputed. The best against the best.”
A historic setting for a crossover fight
The location of the Pyramids of Giza adds spectacle to a fight that already brings with it considerable novelty. Boxing has a long history of staging major events in unconventional settings – from the “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa in 1974 to the “Thrille in Manila” a year later – but this is the first time a world title fight will take place in one of the Seven Wonders of the Age-old World.
According to Usyk, the crossover nature of the fight invites comparisons to the 2017 fight between Floyd Mayweather and UFC star Conor McGregor, another fight in which the boxing establishment faced an elite fighter from another discipline. The difference is that the WBC heavyweight title will be at stake – the most prestigious prize in the sport’s most critical category – which will provide legitimacy that the Mayweather-McGregor fight did not have.
Further details, including ticket and card information, will be announced in the coming weeks. As reported ESPNthe fight will be the latest in a series of ambitious boxing events orchestrated by Alalshikh, who has quickly become the most influential figure in the sport’s global landscape.
Whether “Glory in Giza” is a competitive fight or a one-sided display for Usyk, it promises to be one of the most visually striking events in boxing history and another chapter in the career of a champion who has left remarkably little unchecked.
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Boxing
Peter Fury claims Tyson used the wrong tactics against Usyk
Published
22 minutes agoon
June 4, 2026
“Well, he has his team there and I’m not criticizing anyone, but in both fights his tactics weren’t good,” Peter said in an interview with Sport Boxing.
“It worked out badly because look, if we have a little guy here who can throw, let’s say, a welterweight who can throw a thousand punches, and we have a heavyweight, will a heavyweight fighter throw a thousand punches with him? No.”
“Or maybe he’ll step in and take one good shot? Absolutely.”
“So basically yes, the strategy was just wrong. It doesn’t mean Usyk was better than him. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t say anything. You misunderstand the tactics and they are wrong.
“And you know, when you look at Usyk’s structure and what he does, when he distances himself and tries to box an elite boxer who is lighter than you and who is giving away pounds, he will ping you all over the shop. That should be noticed,” Peter Fury said.
Tyson Fury announced his return earlier this year and is expected to have a preparatory fight before the start of his scheduled series with Anthony Joshua. Queensbury promoter Frank Warren recently confirmed that Fury’s next opponent could be announced in the coming days, with the long-awaited fight against Joshua expected to take place later this year.
Usyk remains at the top of the heavyweight division and has been ordered to fight WBC interim champion Agit Kabayel. Warren also confirmed that negotiations for the fight are ongoing.
Fury’s third meeting with Usyk has not been announced. Peter Fury, however, remains convinced that the strategy used in the first two fights determined the result.
Boxing
The politician’s perfect 12-0 KO record remains the strangest in boxing
Published
2 hours agoon
June 4, 2026
Jorge Kahwagi achieved something almost impossible in professional boxing. The Mexican politician retired with a perfect record of 12-0, knocked out every opponent he faced, and finished his entire career in just 15 rounds.
On paper, this looks like one of the most devastating runs the sport has ever seen. In fact, many boxing fans wondered if they even believed it.
Perfect record
Kahwagi turned professional in 2001, despite having no boxing experience. Over the next fourteen years, he set an undefeated record, won regional titles, and never once heard the final bell.
Twelve fights brought twelve victories. All twelve victories were by knockout in just fifteen rounds.
The numbers are tough to understand even now.
Several of Kahwagi’s opponents entered the ring in defeat. Others seemed hopelessly outmatched.
But the record continued to grow as the politician and businessman rose through the cruiserweight ranks without ever being seriously tested.
By the time he retired in 2015 after returning from a ten-year hiatus for one final fight, Kahwagi owned one of boxing’s most remarkable undefeated records.
Why fans never bought it
The controversy surrounding Kahwaga was not in itself. This is how some of these victories turned out.
His last fight against Ramon Olivas remains the fight most frequently mentioned in discussions about Kahwagi’s career. The break came after seemingly minimal contact, prompting criticism from fans and observers.
Doubts have already surrounded previous victories, including the victory over veteran Roberto Coelho.
Whether these doubts were justified or not, the damage was done and many fans never accepted Kahwagi’s record at face value.
Boxing has seen this before
Kahwagi’s record may be extraordinary, but in boxing there is always controversy when it comes to results.
As WBN reports, while John Riel Casimero faces a fight-fixing investigation in 2025, debates continue to arise in the contemporary era about what happens inside the ropes.
Long before that, Roy Jones Jr. denied winning Olympic gold in Seoul despite dominating Park Si-hun in what many still consider the greatest heist in boxing history.
More than thirty years later, Park returned the medal to Jones.
The Kahwagi case falls into a different category, but the result is often the same. Once fans stop believing what they’re watching, the debate never really stops.
Still one of the strangest
Few fighters retire with a perfect record, and even fewer retire after every knockout victory.
Kahwagi handled both, finishing his entire professional career in just 15 innings, and those numbers remain remarkable.
More than a decade after his retirement, the debate surrounding his record has never really died down.
That’s why Jorge Kahwagi’s perfect 12-0 record remains one of the strangest in boxing history.
About the author
Phil Jay is the editor-in-chief of World Boxing News (WBN) and a boxing veteran with over 15 years of experience. Read the full biography.
Boxing
Teofimo Lopez sees only one winner of David Benavidez vs. Dmitry Bivol title fight
Published
2 hours agoon
June 4, 2026
One of the most coveted fights in boxing right now is the lithe heavyweight clash between unified champion Dmitry Bivol and WBC ruler David Benavidez for the undisputed 175-pound crown.
However, two-division world champion Teofimo Lopez believes that the fight could end in a “massacre”.
Bivol won the undisputed lithe heavyweight title of the world took revenge for his defeat against Artur Beterbiev in February last yearbut soon afterwards the Russian was stripped of the WBC marble and Benavidez became world champion.
“The Mexican Monster” has since won the unified cruiserweight crown, but maintains he would be willing to cut weight to face Bivol and claim the undisputed honors.
Speaking on Inside The Ring programLopez renamed Benavidez the “Massacre Monster” when discussing the potential fight, believing the age difference between the two lithe heavyweight champions could be crucial to the outcome of the fight.
“I’m going to call Benavidez a ‘massacre monster’ because, man, [that performance against Ramirez] it was nasty. It’s really nasty, really.
“He [Benavidez] enters its flowering period, while the other [Bivol] is on the way out. You have to think about these things too.”
Bivol fulfilled his IBF obligation by defending his belts against Michael Eifert last weekend, but the WBO ordered him to face mandatory challenger Callum Smith in order to retain the WBO belt.
As a result, it appears that a potential Bivol-Benavidez clash will have to wait until 2027, with Beterbiev also being considered for the trilogy.
Peter Fury claims Tyson used the wrong tactics against Usyk
The politician’s perfect 12-0 KO record remains the strangest in boxing
Teofimo Lopez sees only one winner of David Benavidez vs. Dmitry Bivol title fight
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