Oleksandr Usyk’s WBC title defence against Rico Verhoeven plunged into doubt

The WBC heavyweight title is unlikely to be on the line when Oleksandr Usyk squares off against kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven this Spring.

Both men are set to lock horns in a crossover clash at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt on May 23.

Usyk is the unified WBA, WBC and IBF heavyweight champion, but when his bout with Verhoeven was announced earlier this week, only the WBC belt was mentioned.

The fight poster for the one-of-a-kind Ring Magazine event declared that the bout was for the ‘WBC world heavyweight championship’.

However, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has now come out and confirmed that this is not the case.

Speaking to Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix, he said: “The WBC fully supports this cross-over fight.

“(We) will create an unbelievable belt featuring the elements of [the] Pyramids of Egypt.

“The WBC supported [Tyson] Fury vs [Francis] Ngannou, which turned out to be very competitive.

“And we have full respect of Rico as a legendary kickboxing heavyweight champion.

“At this moment, there has not been [a] discussion of a request to be a title defense and just a special event involving the WBC heavyweight champion.”

What does this mean for Agit Kabayel?

Before Usyk vs Verhoeven was announced, the WBC had granted Usyk a voluntary defence after defeating Daniel Dubois for a second time last July.

Usyk was given the green light on the understanding that he must defend his belts against WBC interim champion Agit Kabayel thereafter.

GETTY

While the WBC rules and regulations state that a WBC champion must defend their belt if he/she boxes in the same weight division as his/her championship, there is a loophole.

According to Rule 3.8, champions can compete in “WBC special events” without their belt being on the line.

These ‘special events’ must receive written permission from the WBC, as has been the case with Usyk vs Verhoeven.

This fight will therefore count as Usyk’s voluntary, meaning Kabayel will still be ordered to face the Ukrainian next.

The WBC will also take the usual 3 per cent sanctioning fee cut for Usyk vs Verhoeven as if it were a world title fight.

Boxing schedule

For all the upcoming fights and results this year, check out talkSPORT.com’s  boxing schedule.