Oleksandr Usyk’s next fight? For the first time, he is in a no-win situation

When Oleksandr Usyk debuted in the heavyweight division, it felt like the game had changed. The former undisputed cruiserweight champion was attacking the division in a way not seen in this generation: new angles, new speed, new thought – and when the Russia-Ukraine conflict ignited in 2022, a unique motivation. But on Saturday, the game changed for Usyk himself, and for the first time, he is in a no-win situation.

Usyk’s reputation has always felt untouchable, through a combination of his bewitching boxing, his refreshingly-upstanding personal nature, and that drive to give his beleaguered Ukraine something to celebrate in the face of inconceivable horrors.

So, when the unified champion opted for a voluntary title defence against Rico Verhoeven, a kickboxing icon with just one pro boxing match to his name, it would have felt harsh to even bat an eyelid. Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua both boxed UFC star Francis Ngannou over the last three years, and “AJ” even fought a YouTuber in Jake Paul six months ago. It was unexpected that Usyk would tread similar terrain, but after beating Fury, Joshua and Daniel Dubois twice each, he had earned a supposedly-easier outing.

That brought him to Saturday and to the pyramids of Giza, whose very existence have often raised unanswerable questions about invention and labour. And against Verhoeven, Usyk laboured in a way we have not seen before, with his usual invention distinctly lacking.

Yes, Verhoeven was bigger. Yes, as a non-boxer – but with the great Peter Fury in his corner – he approached this fight without the pressure that has consumed many of Usyk’s opponents. As Chris Algieri put it: he fought like a big man on the inside, and a small man on the outside.

But those aspects alone do not account for Verhoeven’s impressive display in Egypt, where this writer had him 97-93 up after 10 rounds, before Usyk’s late, controversial KO win. For as good as Verhoeven was, Usyk fought sluggishly and agitatedly.

You could argue there’s an element of chicken and egg to this: was Usyk sluggish because he was struggling with Verhoeven’s application of weight, and was he agitated by the Dutchman’s movement – those twitchy feet and the constant circling away from Usyk’s southpaw power hand? To give Usyk his due credit, he eventually found his timing, range and rhythm, with uppercuts proving decisive as a tiring Verhoeven reverted to a higher, closer guard. It was one such shot that dropped Verhoeven, 37, in round 11.

And while much of the ensuing controversy (rightly) centred on the referee stopping the fight after the bell, there is an imperfect counter-argument that Verhoeven was given extra time to recover from the initial knockdown, as he was allowed to re-insert his mouthguard while in his corner. Two wrongs don’t make a right, of course, so have a third anyway: the scores were 95-95, 95-95, and 96-94 in Verhoeven’s favour after 10 rounds.

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In any case, as Steve Bunce wrote in these pages: “The first thing Usyk said when he was interviewed in the ring was not about the fight, but about a conversation he had with his daughter that very day. ‘She is in a bomb shelter,’ he said. Have we become so immune to human disaster that we hear that and still question why a man did not look and fight like he normally does?”

The problem for Usyk is that fans are fickle and unforgiving.

If the 39-year-old opts for a rematch with Verhoeven, his almost-impenetrable reputation will degrade slightly from two successive bouts with a kickboxer, at the expense of his mandatory challenger, Agit Kabayel, getting his rightful shot. Yet if Usyk chooses to face Kabayel, a sour taste will be left in many a mouth, with Verhoeven hard done by.

For what it’s worth, Kabayel’s promoter Frank Warren said “we’re not going to stand for” Usyk vs Rico 2, and Usyk vs Kabayel (perhaps in the latter’s native Germany) would be a strong match-up. On paper, it would be a tougher test for Usyk than the first Verhoeven fight, or even a rematch, in which the Ukrainian would likely figure out the kickboxer more quickly.

But boxing matches aren’t won on paper, if you’ll pardon a cliche. Verhoeven gave Usyk a tougher test than Joshua, Dubois and Fury, and with the multiple controversies that muddied the end of Saturday’s main event, the Dutchman deserves another shot at Usyk.

Yes, Verhoeven will likely get a big-name opponent in his next boxing match – because he will stay in the sport – but we saw how that went for Ngannou. He dropped Fury and was unlucky not to be awarded a points win over the “Gypsy King”, but he was annihilated by Joshua a few months later. Styles make fights, if you’ll pardon a second cliche.

Perhaps a solution is for Usyk to box Verhoeven again, and to vacate his WBC title so Kabayel can fight another contender for that belt. Usyk could then face Kabayel, if the latter is victorious, in 2027. At that point, Usyk will be 40 years old with just one fight left in his plan for three final bouts, the first of which was his duel with Verhoeven.

Yet based on Saturday, there is an argument that Usyk should get out sooner rather than later. He did have nothing left to prove, yet all of a sudden that has changed. All of a sudden, he is in a no-win situation for the first time.