David Haye has revealed his prediction for how Rico Verhoeven would fare against Deontay Wilder.
Verhoeven headed to the Pyramids of Giza in a bizarre bid for Usyk’s heavyweight throne, despite his solitary professional boxing bout coming over 12 years prior, with many fight fans angry at the supposed mismatch.
On fight night, Verhoeven came incredibly close to pulling off an unprecedented win and becoming the most inexperienced world champion in boxing history, until a controversial round 11 stoppage saw Usyk retain his belts.
Amid rumours that Verhoeven will appear on December’s Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua bill, Haye spoke to talkSPORT Boxing about a possible showdown against Wilder – a fight that Verhoeven says he has accepted.
“It depends on what version of Wilder turns up. The last version of Wilder, against [Derek] Chisora, he didn’t look like his former self. So, if he going to slip further away from that or is he going to somehow [roll back the years]?
“Because he has got that explosive power and Rico hasn’t got that history of avoiding big punches, he could zap him like he zapped everybody [years ago].”
Despite favouring a Wilder win, Haye went on to point out that Verhoeven will most probably have improved in the period that has followed his defeat to Usyk.
“If that was Rico after his first fight, you learn a lot in your first fight against a world champion. You are only going to be better next time around.
“There are little movements that you have to learn to do boxing, particularly after jumping from kickboxing, he has only just made the adjustments. He has got another year of ingraining the right movements to be more of an effective heavyweight.”
Wilder was last in action in April when he claimed a points win over Derek Chisora, and along with the possible clash with Verhoeven, ‘The Bronze Bomber’ has also been linked to a clash against cruiserweight star Jai Opetaia on the Fury vs. Joshua card.
