It is said in professional boxing there is always a puncher’s chance but does Rico even have this in his fight against Usyk?
He is going in there with the current undefeated heavyweight champion of the world in Usyk.
A fighter who has won titles at cruiserweight and heavyweight, one of the few in history.
Usyk is not himself lately however, very emotional in his training and all over the place but even with that, Rico is still the biggest underdog of all time in heavyweight boxing history.
A few notes to bare in mind first here on Rico:
- Verhoeven was GLORY’s longest-reigning heavyweight champion until Nov 2024
- Verhoeven has lost only once since 2015
- Verhoeven beat Artem Vakhitov by unanimous decision in June 2025
- Tom Aspinall said Rico can punch hard so that gives him a chance
- Verhoeven envisions seeing the final bell with his hand raised
- Verhoeven said he is a naturally-born heavyweight and Usyk is a built-up cruiserweight
- Verhoeven said it is a 20 kilo weight difference
- Jonathan Haggerty said I don’t think he’s got a chance really
- Fabio Wardley called it not a genuine challenge
- Verhoeven is working with Peter Fury to prepare
As well, let’s take a look at how many KOs he actually has had in kickboxing as well for a minute:
- Rico Verhoeven’s kickboxing record is 66-10
- He has 21 KOs in kickboxing
- His KO ratio is about 32 percent
- He was GLORY’s longest-reigning heavyweight champion from 2013 until Nov 2024
- He has lost only once since 2015
- That loss was a unanimous decision to Andrey Gerasimchuk
- He last fought kickboxing on June 14 2025
- He beat Artem Vakhitov by unanimous decision in that fight
- Most of his wins are by decision
- He has more decision wins than KOs in kickboxing
Alas, Rico isn’t exactly a huge knockout artist with devastating power where you could say, yeah, maybe there’s a puncher’s chance.
Also he’s been getting heavy sparring with black eyes lately which is concerning as well.
All things are pointing to a real mismatch here and one of the biggest mismatches in history.
The boxing commission in Egypt allowing this fight to happen could easily be investigated after this by many international authorities.
This is a much bigger mismatch than Anthony Joshua and Jake Paul was before just last Christmas.
Bare in mind, before Jake Paul stepped in there with Anthony Joshua Paul had eleven professional boxing matches to his name as well.
Rico Verhoeven has just one pro boxing match in his career.
