How did Rico Verhoeven end up fighting Oleksandr Usyk instead of Anthony Joshua?

Before Anthony Joshua knocked out Jake Paul at the end of 2025, DAZN News had learned from multiple sources that if the former two-time unified heavyweight champion of the world took care of business, he'd fight former GLORY heavyweight champion, Rico Verhoeven, in February.

However, Joshua suffered some nicks and bruises in the Paul fight. The idea had been to move the fight to March. Tragedy then struck in late December when Joshua was involved in an automobile accident that ended up killing his close friends Sina Ghami and Latif "Latz" Ayodele. Joshua ended up suffering unknown injuries, physical and mental, and has just recently gotten back into the gym. A return to the ring is unknown. 

Without a Joshua fight, Verhoeven was without a fight. But that didn't last for long as he'll now be challenging Oleksandr Usyk for the WBC crown at ‘Glory in Giza’ on Saturday, May 23 from The Pyramids at Giza in Egypt, live and exclusively on DAZN. How did Verhoeven land on Usyk and not wait for Joshua?

"What happened was we got on the phone, and we heard that the fight might happen," Verhoeven said Tuesday on The Ariel Helwani Show. "But 'AJ' just needs some time to recover physically and mentally. So probably in March, we'll hear some more about it. Ok, no worries. Totally understand. Totally respect this whole situation.

"So I came to the gym and my boxing trainer, Peter Fury, said, 'Hey, I was thinking, what about fighting Oleksander Usyk?' 

"I was like, 'Yeah, what about it? Yeah, why not? Is that an option? I love the idea. But, I don't know if that's an option. Let me check.'

"I think there was a few days after the call we had, I called them up. I was like, 'I have an idea. I just want to check with you. I've been the undisputed champion the last 12 years within my discipline. Oleksandr Usyk has been the undisputed champion of cruiserweight and came up (to heavyweight). Undefeated for a long time. What about undisputed vs. undisputed?'

"They said one thing, 'I love it'. They started talking to Oleksandr about the whole idea. He loved the idea. And they made it work."

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