Rico Verhoeven is no longer talking only about the controversial stoppage in his loss to Oleksandr Usyk. The former kickboxing champion believes he and trainer Peter Fury discovered a style that worked against boxing’s pound-for-pound king, and he says the performance proved Usyk was beatable.
Verhoeven spent much of a recent interview explaining the tactical approach his team used in Egypt. Rather than boxing cautiously, he pushed the pace and attempted to deny Usyk the rhythm that has carried 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 the best? Keeping the pressure, fighting at his own rhythm, take those two things away from him, becomes a totally different fight. That’s what we did,” said Verhoeven 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 began. He said Peter Fury repeatedly told him during 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 is not going to show you something you have not seen before. You’ve been in there with the very best,” said Verhoeven.
“And he is one of the best, but he’s not going to show you something you have not seen before. So just go out there, relax, and enjoy yourself.”
“No, sir. The only thing I knew, and I expected, was that he was going to be agile, slippery, 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 and argued that his performance showed he belonged at the highest level of boxing despite entering the fight as a crossover challenger from kickboxing.
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Last Updated on 2026/05/29 at 1:22 PM
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