With Usyk and Verhoeven, the fun is in the imagining, nothing else. It is fun, for some, to imagine a great boxer like Usyk, 24-0 (15 KOs), sharing a ring with a great kickboxer like Verhoeven, 1-0 (1 KO) as a boxer, and trying to predict what will unfold when the first bell rings. It is fun, too, for Usyk, as Coppinger was at pains to stress in his post. It is fun for Usyk because most fights, for him, tend to be serious fights against heavyweight boxers who are often taller than him and heavier than him. This, in contrast to those, is a nice fight; a fun fight. It is a fight in which Usyk will not only feel comfortable physically but will know that his experience in the boxing ring is likely to mean everything. (Bring that, plus a degree of fitness, and Usyk should have no difficulty dealing with Verhoeven on May 23, regardless of the 6’5″ Dutchman’s prowess in a different combat sport.) It is also, bizarrely, a fight some will say Usyk has “earned” or “deserves”. If anyone is to have a gimme, or a bit of fun in the ring, it is Oleksandr Usyk, they will say. Look at his career to date. Look how many tough fights he has had as both a cruiserweight and heavyweight. Look at how he has approached these challenges and how he has never ducked anybody.
No champion, not even Oleksandr Usyk, deserves silly fights
