Usyk vs Verhoeven Odds: Verhoeven is ‘more likely to win than Buster was vs Tyson’

World heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk defends the WBC version of his crown against kickboxing legend turned boxing novice Rico Verhoeven on Saturday, May 23. The unusual event takes place at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt with live coverage coming via DAZN PPV and Ultimate.

Read on as we take an early look at the Usyk vs Verhoeven odds, including a surprising historical comparison.

On the surface, Usyk facing a kickboxer who has had a single pro boxing fight, 21 years ago, is a sign of the times. Two of his victims, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, have beaten Francis Ngannou, the UFC champion-turned-pugilistic novice. Jake Paul’s flimsy legacy has largely been built on refugees from the Octagon. The term ‘crossover boxing’ is used to sell shoddy fights to a gullible public featuring everyone from strongman Eddie Hall to reality TV annoyance Joey Essex.

But Usyk’s outing feels more egregious somehow. For a start, the publicity-gobbling WBC has put its version of the world heavyweight championship on the line. A belt held by Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis is the prize for a man who has had the same amount of pro boxing bouts as Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff.

The hurt goes deeper than that for some boxing fans. Usyk was supposed to be the counterweight to boxing’s increasing reliance on the metrics-first three-ring circus. Sure, his rivals could piss about fighting UFC fighters. But ‘The Cat’ was our throwback. The former cruiserweight king making the big step-up and gutting the division ruthlessly. The fight-anyone warrior the blue riband division has lacked. 

But since becoming undisputed champion, something has altered in Usyk. It is forgivable that, at the age of 39, the surefire Hall of Famer wants to rest on his laurels. The first undisputed heavyweight champion in over 20 years. The only man in history to unify the four cruiserweight world titles. The first three-time undisputed champion of the four-belt era. An Olympic gold medalist. There truly isn’t another world for this man to conquer.

But where many draw the line is that Usyk is holding the division hostage to appease his whims. The Ukrainian passed on the Joseph Parker fight, citing an injury. Parker then got dispatched by Fabio Wardley. Usyk demurred on facing the big Brit and Wardley was given his vacated WBO belt.

Wardley has now lost that title to Daniel Dubois, who Usyk has knocked out twice. Oleksandr cites Moses Itauma’s youth as a reason he won’t meet the WBA’s number-one contender. But the 21-year-old has fought his way into contention on merit and Usyk’s protests ring hollow.

While swerving legitimate contenders, Usyk holds on to the same tired wishes. A fight with washed-up Deontay Wilder or a pointless third outing with Fury. Neither bout inspires anything more than apathy. The heavyweight division needs to move on from the cabal of former champions who are edging towards middle age. 

Dubois, Wardley, Itauma, Parker have all proven capable and have time on their side. Olympic hero Richard Torrez Jr is making noise in the States while Bakhodir Jalolov is another medalist from the games who is edging up the pro ranks. Throw in former cruiserweight world champions like Richard Riakporhe and Lawrence Okolie who are both unbeaten at heavyweight. The competition is there, but the division feels rudderless when the champion is more concerned with his nostalgic bucket list than remaining the best in the world.

Which segues nicely into this fight with Verhoeven. The kickboxer is 9/1 to shock the world. For context, James ‘Buster’ Douglas was 42/1 to beat ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson back in 1990. We all know what happened that night at the Tokyo Dome.

Does the Dutch former GLORY Kickboxing champion really have a better chance than ‘Buster’? Not at all. Douglas was unfavoured but had competed at a high level, even if his record was patchy. Douglas was 29-4-1 heading to Japan, with wins over future world champion Oliver McCall and former WBC titlist Trevor Berbick in his two most recent outings. An underdog? Massively. Everyone was against that version of Mike. But a deserving contender nonetheless.

The only thing Verhoeven deserves at a boxing event is a front-row ticket. That is not an insult to the man. Rico is considered one of the greatest kickboxers of all-time. But Lionel Messi is an all-time great footballer and I don’t want to see him fight for the heavyweight championship either. 

The vulgar mess of ‘crossover boxing’ has only served to show that combat sports differ from each other. That skills in one arena are largely not transferable into another. For every Anderson ‘Spider’ Silva out-hustling a tired Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, there are countless examples of MMA fighters getting hammered in boxing bouts. Ngannou nearly shocked the world against Fury, but against AJ they were scraping him off the canvas. Frank Mir nearly had his head taken off by a shopworn Kubrat Pulev. Ben Askren was so under-schooled in boxing that Jake Paul beat him.