When fights like the headliner in Egypt are made – and they are becoming all-too frequent – it is difficult to know what comes first; an audible groan or a roll of the eyes.
For it is there, among the Pyramids of Giza, no less, where Oleksandr Usyk, the best heavyweight boxer in the world, fights Rico Verhoeven, a kickboxer who has fought once as a professional boxer.
Now, 12 years on from his second-round stoppage of the then 0-5 Hungarian Janos Finfera, who retired 0-6, by the way, Verhoeven fights as a professional boxer again in what is quite extraordinarily a contest for the WBC’s heavyweight title.
This is not a version of the title, a gold, silver, interim or international title, but the real one.
Oh, Mauricio.
I digress.
This bout is from the same stable of events that saw Francis Ngannou line up against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua and Connor McGregor go in with Floyd Mayweather and quite why they’re still happening is just about anyone’s guess.
Oh, but it’s in front of the Pyramids, you might say. Well, I don’t really mind where it happens, the result will still be the same.
Now I would have understood these fights had they happened more in the 1980s. Back then, there was a genuine curiosity about what martial art was the most effective and who would win if fighters with differing backgrounds competed.
But we found out in the 1990s, through mixed martial arts, that when it comes down to fighters from different disciplines clashing, the house just about almost always wins. That is to say, whoever is fighting in their discipline wins.
As we learned with Ngannou against Joshua, McGregor against Mayweather, the boxers who box for a living have the deck stacked in their favour. By no means is that a criticism. It’s a fact.
Now, for Verhoeven, we’re told he is a great striker. We know he’s done his boxing training with Peter Fury for years, and he’s sparred countless rounds with both Tyson and Hughie Fury. He also has a size advantage. But simply by listing all this stuff we are scratching around trying to find a compelling case for him to win. We are also, really, enabling it.
