Rico Verhoeven: Being the Underdog Against Oleksandr Usyk Motivates Me

Kickboxing world champion Rico Verhoeven admits he will enter his upcoming boxing match against heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk as a clear underdog, but says that status only motivates him more.

The bout between the two is scheduled for May 23 in Giza, with the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight belt expected to be on the line.

“I love it,” Verhoeven said in an interview with Inside The Ring regarding his underdog role. “Because it means I have this opportunity. The world is at my feet.”

Despite his long and successful kickboxing career and years of training alongside professional boxers, the Dutch fighter has only one professional boxing bout on his record. For that reason, he fully understands how difficult a challenge the Ukrainian champion represents.

“It’s hard even to hit him, and even if you do, he’s not going down,” Verhoeven said. “He has taken punches from Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. I don’t think knocking him out will be easy. But I will definitely try.”

According to Verhoeven, a knockout victory would cause a massive shock in the boxing world, but personally he would prefer a different scenario.

“The best victory for me would be to go all 12 rounds and win by unanimous decision,” he explained. “That way Usyk will know he tried everything and it just didn’t work — not that I landed one lucky punch.”