Oleksandr Usyk vs. Rico Verhoeven: Everything You Need to Know

Unified heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk fights Rico Verhoeven against the backdrop of the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt on Saturday.

The Ukrainian defends his WBC title against the boxing novice and renowned kickboxer.

A win for Verhoeven would be one of boxing's biggest ever upsets - but can the Dutchman really pull it off or will Usyk's quest to retire undefeated continue as planned?

Everything you need to know about the fight is here.

Radio commentary from Cairo will begin from 22:00 BST on BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds, and the BBC Sport website and app, on Saturday, 23 May.

You can hear round-by-round updates from the co-main event when Briton Hamzah Sheeraz faces WBO super-middleweight champion Alem Begic, before the heavyweight showdown.

Live text commentary will start from 21:00 on the BBC Sport website and app.

You can follow all the action through fight week on BBC Sport, with the 5 Live Boxing podcast with Steve Bunce bringing you daily episodes.

(All times throughout this article are BST)

The boxing records of Usyk and Verhoeven are incomparable, but both fighters have established themselves as leading figures in their respective disciplines.

Usyk began campaigning as a professional boxer a year after winning gold at the 2012 Olympics in London.

In just his 10th fight, Usyk beat Krzysztof Glowacki to win the WBO cruiserweight title and embarked on the road to become undisputed.

He achieved that feat in 2018 with a points win over Murat Gassiev and made one successful defence against Tony Bellew before moving up to heavyweight.

Victories over Chazz Witherspoon and Derek Chisora earned Usyk a shot at unified champion Anthony Joshua, and he delivered again to win the WBA (Super), IBF and WBO belts.

Following successful defences in a rematch with Joshua and then against Daniel Dubois, Usyk made history by becoming the first undisputed heavyweight champion in the four-belt era when he outpointed Tyson Fury.

Usyk beat Fury twice in 2024 and further cemented his place as one of the pound-for-pound greats when stopping Dubois in 2025 to become a two-time undisputed champion.

He has yet to taste defeat in 24 fights as a professional and has won 15 of those contests inside the distance.

Verhoeven has only competed once professionally as a boxer - claiming a second-round knockout win over Janos Finfera in 2014.

But he is regarded as one of the greats of the kickboxing world, having reigned as the Glory promotion's heavyweight champion for 11 years and made 13 successful defences.

Usyk is the WBA (Super), IBF and WBC heavyweight world champion, but not all the belts will be on the line against Verhoeven.

Verhoeven can only win the WBC belt, while the WBA and IBF titles will become vacant if Usyk loses.

This is because Verhoeven is not ranked with any sanctioning body and it was highly unusual for the WBC to allow the Dutchman to fight for their belt.

Their fellow sanctioning bodies did not quite go as far, but will not be taking any action against Usyk for tackling the Verhoeven fight.