Usyk weighs in at his heaviest for Verhoeven fight at the Pyramids in Egypt

[p]The unbeaten Ukrainian will ‌still step into the ring considerably ‌lighter than his opponent, who came in at 258.7 pounds in ‌the morning weigh-in before both ⁠attend a ‌ceremonial event later in the evening.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/usyk-olexandr/nqbF7L5K/"]Usyk[/a] weighed ​227 pounds when he fought Britain's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/dubois-daniel/G0otNoYd/"]Daniel Dubois[/a] at ​London's Wembley Stadium last July, and was 226 pounds against [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/fury-tyson/MDZyQvA1/"]Tyson Fury[/a] ⁠in December ​2024.[/p][p][b]Dubois is now the WBO champion while Usyk holds the WBC, WBA and IBF belts.[/b][/p][image alt="Oleksandr Usyk and Rico Verhoeven before the fight" id="2ffcd853-1089-4e6a-9893-95ef4aba3fd0" credit-line="Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters" guid="7353b4d2-1d02-45be-b8a5-7ceca81bf51e" original-width="2850" original-height="1850" /][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/verhoeven-rico/OdPJz24m/"]Verhoeven[/a] can only ‌take the WBC belt on Saturday, with the other sanctioning bodies set to declare their titles vacant should Usyk lose.[/p][p]A defeat for the champion would be one of the biggest upsets in boxing history, with the fight considered a ‌total mismatch by many.[/p][p]Verhoeven, 37, ​has fought only one professional ‌boxing bout, and that was 12 years ago, before he embarked on an 11-year unbeaten run in kickboxing. Usyk, an Olympic champion, ⁠is undefeated ⁠in 24.[/p]