Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley went first, serving up a brutal, bloody battle which crowned a new heavyweight titlist on the 9th. This Saturday, May 23, Ring champion Oleksandr Usyk will take part in what he claims will be the antepenultimate fight of his incredible career.

Of course there are very few people giving Rico Verhoeven, the long-reigning kickboxing champion, much of a chance in their unique clash in Egypt on Saturday night. In fact, you could argue that a victory for the 1-0 boxing novice over Usyk, currently priced as wide as a 25-1 favorite, would be the biggest upset ever in a world heavyweight title fight.

For centuries, many have wondered how the people of 2700 BC Cairo managed to build the Pyramids without so much as a cherry picker. If Big Rico can do the business, it would slot in as maybe the second biggest mystery in Egyptian history. “It must have been aliens,” they will cry. “Or telekinesis.”

There would usually be a suggestion that Usyk, at 39, is in decline and that he lost something over those 24 rounds with Tyson Fury. Maybe you could argue that his three-fight exit plan shows that he is already dreaming of retirement and that he will take his eye off the ball against the Dutch underdog. But anyone peddling such claims should be made to sit down and watch the Usyk-Dubois rematch from July.

This is not a man in decline. In fact, the victory at Wembley Stadium, which came two minutes into the fifth round, was Usyk’s best and most destructive performance since he moved up to heavyweight in 2019. Never mind on the wane, Usyk actually looks better than ever.

This is bad news if you’re a kickboxer hoping to win the world heavyweight title in only your second official boxing match, or for anyone who bet on Verhoeven.

A victory for Verhoeven would be seismic and would completely alter the picture at heavyweight. Of course, a new WBC champion would be crowned and history would be made, as nobody has ever achieved that in their second fight. Although the IBF title is not on the line, Usyk would be stripped of that belt should he lose and the WBA would almost certainly follow suit. Cue a scramble for the hardware.

That is a scenario for another column, but what happens if Usyk sticks to the script and comes through this unscathed? He told our colleagues on “Inside The Ring” that he would want to face the Wardley-Dubois winner to get his WBO belt back, but given he’s already knocked Dubois out twice, do we really need to see a trilogy fight?

Usyk also suggested completing his hat-trick against Fury, someone else he has beaten twice, for the final outing of his career. But where will that fit in now we know that “The Gypsy King” is finally on a collision course with Anthony Joshua?

Promoter Frank Warren has threatened legal action if the WBC doesn't order the winner in Egypt to face interim champion Agit Kabayel next and, although Usyk has rarely mentioned the German, that would be a fight that makes total sense all round.

Verhoeven, meanwhile, told me last month that this fight is just “the tip of the iceberg” as far as his boxing career is concerned and that it will be the start of his new campaign as a high-level heavyweight. Let’s see how that develops – it did not quite work out for Francis Ngannou (0-2).

But before any of that, it’s all eyes on the geezers in Giza, as they hold the key to the next 12 months of heavyweight history.

With Paddy Donovan’s two defeats to Lewis Crocker and Joseph Parker's stoppage at the hands of Fabio Wardley, 2025 was not a great vintage for Andy Lee and his gym.

But Hamzah Sheeraz’s memorable July victory over Edgar Berlanga in Queens, New York was one of the high points of the year for the team in Dublin.

Sheeraz’s reward for that win is Saturday’s crack at the vacant WBO super middleweight title on the undercard of Usyk-Verhoeven. His preparation for the fight against Alem Begic was done alongside Donovan and another of the stable’s leading lights, Ben Whittaker, who have all been driving each other to higher standards in the gym.

Whittaker was the first to demonstrate a glimpse of that, crushing Braian Suarez inside a round in Liverpool last month. Donovan followed it up with a career-best win over Karen Chukhadzhian in Germany on Friday night.

Afterward, Lee flew straight to Dublin and was back in the gym with Sheeraz the next evening. It’s his turn Saturday night to try and make it three out of three for the coach in five weeks.

“No pressure innit?” Sheeraz told me over the phone before Saturday’s training session. “You’ve got to give credit to Andy because having three fighters of that level is not easy to manage. Ben and Paddy have done the business. Now I’ve got to go and follow suit.”