The scale of Saturday’s Oleksandr Usyk-Rico Verhoeven event in Egypt has already left a big impression on Eddie Hearn, who described the set-up around the Pyramids of Giza as one of the most difficult productions his team has ever undertaken.
Hearn believes the atmosphere and spectacle surrounding the card will deliver something boxing fans have rarely seen before, even as organizers continue racing to finish preparations ahead of fight night.
“It’s something a little bit special, to be honest with you. Cairo was wild this morning. Arrived, and it’s something special,” Eddie Hearn told Seconds Out.
“And again, shout out to the team that works really hard to make sure everything gets done on time, and it will go right down to the wire. It will be done. But it’s a monumental effort to put something like this together operationally, and the vision that Turki Alalshikh had and everyone had to do it is pretty incredible.”
In another interview earlier in the day, Hearn elaborated on the scale of the event, describing the show as a “historic moment” for boxing, while admitting that the logistics behind setting up a card alongside the pyramids were difficult.
“I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like it. And we won’t see anything like it again,” Hearn said.
“When you choose to do it, sometimes it seems like an extraordinary idea, but someone has to do it. Saturday night you will see a highlight of a great card, but a historic moment for the sport.”
The card headlines Usyk defending his heavyweight championship against kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven in one of the sport’s most unusual crossover bouts. The event also features Jack Catterall taking on Shakhram Giyasov and Hamzah Sheeraz fighting Alem Begic for the vacant WBO super middleweight title.
Even before the opening bell, the institution itself became one of the biggest talking points around the event.
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Last updated on 2026/05/20 at 16:16
