Rico Verhoeven no longer only talks about the controversial strike in his loss against Oleksandr Usyk. The former kickboxing champion believes he and trainer Peter Fury discover a style who worked against boxing’s pound-for-pound king, and he says the performance proved that Usyk was beatable.
Verhoeven spent much of a recent interview explaining the tactical approach his team used in Egypt. Rather than box carefully, he pushed the pace and tried to deny Usyk the rhythm that brought him to victories over Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois.
According to Verhoeven, the blueprint came from an old heavyweight fight.
“What is it that Usyk does best? Keeping the pressure, fighting at his own rhythm, taking those two things away from him becomes a totally different fight. That’s what we did,” Verhoeven said on Chris Mannix’s YouTube channel.
“I took that fight as an example, but to be honest, and I say that with all due respect I tried to perfect that style and make it better.”
“We took that approach and we perfected it. It worked.”
Verhoeven also rejected the idea that Usyk presented anything unexpected once the fight started. He said Peter Fury repeatedly told him during the camp that the unified heavyweight champion would not show him anything he had not already seen during his long combat sports career.
“Peter Fury said, he said, ‘Believe me when I tell you, he’s not going to show you anything you haven’t seen before. You were there with the very best,'” Verhoeven said.
“And he’s one of the best, but he’s not going to show you anything you haven’t seen before. So just go out there, relax and enjoy yourself.”
“No, sir. The only thing I knew, and I expected, was that he would be agile, smooth, and hard to hit. And he was.”
Those comments are likely to add momentum to Verhoeven’s campaign for a rematch. Throughout the interview, he repeatedly mentioned his desire to face Usyk again, arguing that his performance showed that he belongs at the highest level of boxing despite entering the fight as a kickboxing crossover challenger.
Click here to subscribe to our FREE newsletter
Related Boxing News:
Last updated on 2026/05/29 at 13:22
