UFC legend Alistair Overeem, a kickboxing rival of Rico Verhoeven, told Ring Magazine on Monday that his compatriot combatant has numerous assets to perturb the unified heavyweight world boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk when they clash in a crossover fight at the Pyramids of Giza on May 23.
The fight is a considerable change of pace from the No.1 pound-for-pound ranked boxer, Usyk, who has run a gauntlet throughout his career regardless of whether he was competing in the Olympics as a gold medal-winning athlete, or beating Marco Huck, Mairis Briedis, and Murat Gassiev at cruiserweight, or lapping the competition — Daniel Dubois, Anthony Joshua, and Tyson Fury — at heavyweight.
In Verhoeven, Usyk, at 39 years old, takes on a challenger who has only ever fought once as a pro boxer — in 2014 — but continually entertained in kickboxing with a Fight of the Year contending victory over Jamal Ben Saddik, among other wins.
He was even once supposed to fight Overeem, but the former UFC heavyweight king withdrew from the contest citing injury, and they were never able to reschedule. Now, the fighter has analyzed his rival’s chances in the upcoming Usyk fight.
“Where is he at?” Overeem asked. “Because in kickboxing nobody could really give him any difficulty. So he has decided to put it all on the line against Usyk, and he can cause problems.”
Overeem then explained how.
“He has the height and he has the weight against Usyk and the team will be working on a plan.”
Overeem added: “This is a fight that both men need to win, nobody is just going to show up for the sake of it. That’s the beauty of this match.”
Overeem then put a dampener on any boxing fan expecting Verhoeven to test Usyk with a knockout threat, saying that’s not how he ever really fought in his speciality discipline. “If there was any criticism of Rico beforehand it was that his fights were deemed not super spectacular. Also because the heavyweight division was kind of shallow he didn’t always have the biggest tests.
“In the kickboxing matches his problem was that he wasn’t really knocking everybody out … he was more about volume and the speed.”
It’s a “different ballpark” fighting Usyk, he said. “So they’re going to have to figure something out to make sure they make the most of his assets and advantages. They will do their homework on that.”
