The longtime Glory Kickboxing heavyweight champion wouldn’t have it any other way, though.

Usyk and Verhoeven will clash in a 12-round heavyweight bout May 23 in the shadow of the Egyptian Pyramids on DAZN. Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs), The Ring’s No. 1-ranked fighter pound-for-pound, holds the Ring, IBF, WBA and WBC heavyweight titles. The WBC is sanctioning the bout as a voluntary title defense for the two-time undisputed heavyweight champion.

“I love it,“ Verhoeven said on "Inside The Ring" about being a significant underdog versus the Ukrainian southpaw. “What does that mean? What an opportunity we have, guys. The world is at my feet.“

Verhoeven, 36, is 66-10 (with 21 KOs) as a kickboxer and reigned as the heavyweight champion in Glory, the top kickboxing organization in the world, from 2013 unti vacating the title last November. He has lost only once in that span, suffering a unanimous decision defeat to Andrey Gerasimchuk in 2015.

Verhoeven last fought on June 14, defeating former Glory light heavyweight champion Artem Vakhitov by unanimous decision. The Dutch kickboxer has one professional boxing match under his belt, which he won by second-round knockout against a winless Janos Finfera in 2014.

A win in any shape or form for Verhoeven would constitute one of, if not the biggest upsets in boxing history. Verhoeven envisions seeing the final bell and having his hand raised after the decision is read.

“The thing that keeps coming back is that he is hard to hit, and when you hit him, he doesn't go down that easily,” Verhoeven said. “He's been hit, and he's been clipped by [Anthony Joshua], one of the hardest punchers in boxing. He's been clipped by Tyson Fury. I don't believe that it is going to be an easy task to get him out there. I'm definitely going to try.

“I think the best victory I could possibly get is win within 12 rounds and get the unanimous decision, because then Oleksandr Usyk tried everything for 12 rounds, and he's like, ‘I tried it, but it just didn't work.’ Not just a lucky punch, ‘Oh, I knocked him out. Yes. Oh, that was so good,’ and maybe I got lucky. No, we did everything and we left everything on the table.”