Rico Verhoeven explained why he turned down a bigger payday fighting Francis Ngannou in MMA for his upcoming WBC Heavyweight Championship boxing fight against Oleksandr Usyk in Egypt.
Verhoeven left GLORY Kickboxing in 2025 much like Ngannou had left UFC in 2023, reigning as the unbeaten Heavyweight Champion. And he will be doing the same as Ngannou had in one regard, boxing the Lineal Heavyweight Champion Olekandr Usyk.
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The bout will be contested for the WBC Heavyweight Championship, pitting Verhoeven against the 24-0 multiple time and weight Undisputed World Champion at the Pyramids of Giza on May 23, in just his second professional boxing bout after debuting with a KO win in 2014.
But he could have been facing Ngannou in his second MMA bout instead, as he confirmed during Chael Sonnen’s “Smash Cast” that a large offer had been tabled for them to fight. However, Verhoeven said that he had already verbally agreed to the Usyk fight with Turki Alalshikh.
“My word is my everything,” he said. “For me, that was the thing, like, I gave my word. There were multiple people that really put their necks out for me. So that’s like Jason Statham, his excellency Turki Alalshikh, his right hand man Doctor Rakan [Al-Harty], and I was like this is what I got to do. The other option is amazing and they’re paying an amazing amount of money but I gave these guys my word.”
Ngannou is now due to fight Philipe Lins on the MVP MMA card headlined by Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano streaming on Netflix on May 16. It will be his first fight since beating Renan Fereira for the PFL Super Fights Heavyweight Championship in 2024. Verhoeven fought his one and only MMA bout with a first-round knockout win over Viktor Bogutzski in 2015.
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Read the original article on Wrestling Inc.
