After careful consideration, the WBC has decided to sanction the heavyweight crossover fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Rico Verhoeven.
Oleksandr Usyk hasn’t competed contained in the boxing ring since last July when he knocked out Daniel Dubois of their undisputed heavyweight title rematch.
After having achieved all the things there’s to realize in the game, the Ukrainian seemed to be teetering towards retirement, before targeting a fight against Deontay Wilder.
Despite that, the 39-year-old was approached with a mega crossover fight by Turki Alalshikh, and it was announced a couple of days ago that he’ll tackle legendary kickboxer, Rico Verhoeven in an enormous crossover.
WBC release statement on Usyk vs Verhoeven
The super fight is scheduled to happen in front of the Pyramids of Giza on May 23, in what is about to be one in all the most important fights of the 12 months.
Initially, WBC president, Mauricio Sulaiman, stated that the WBC fully supports the clash, but claimed that it wouldn’t be for the WBC world title.
“We are going to create an unbelievable belt featuring the weather of Pyramids of Egypt,” he told Sports Illustrated.
“At this moment there has not been discussion of a request to be a title defense and only a special event involving the WBC heavyweight champion.”
Despite that, in an announcement released this Sunday afternoon, the WBC have accomplished a U-turn regarding their stance on the fight, revealing that the WBC world heavyweight title will now be on the road.
“After careful consideration, the WBC Board of Governors has ruled in favor of sanctioning WBC World Heavyweight Champion Oleksandr Usyk’s voluntary title defense against legendary kickboxing champion, Rico Verhoeven.
“At its 63rd Annual Convention in Bangkok, Thailand, the WBC granted Champion Usyk a voluntary defense. Subsequently, the WBC received the petition to sanction Usyk vs Verhoeven fight as a voluntary defense.”
The WBC didn’t sanction Tyson Fury vs Francis Ngannou
The WBC’s decision to the truth is sanction this mega crossover fight as a title fight potentially comes after a competitive clash between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou in 2023.
In his statement to Sports Illustrated, Sulaiman touched on the indisputable fact that the WBC supported Fury vs Ngannou, which turned out to be ‘very competitive’.
Despite that, when those two heavyweights clashed, Fury’s WBC title was not on the road.