OLEKSANDR USYK stunned Rico Verhoeven by revealing his secret kickboxing background.

Usyk defends his WBC heavyweight world title against the Dutch kickboxing great in Egypt on Saturday.

Verhoeven has had just ONE boxing bout but has spent the last ten years undefeated in the kickboxing ranks.

And despite Usyk’s unbeaten reign of undisputed terror at cruiserweight and heavyweight – Verhoeven claims he has something new to offer.

He said on DAZN’s Face Off: “We as champions and as athletes, we work our arses off to be the best versions of ourselves and to make it look easy.

“That’s a totally different thing. It is not easy, but we make it look easy.

“So, I think with that being said, for me, coming in as a kickboxer is something that he hasn’t seen before.

“He’s dissected the sport of boxing like no other. He’s been taking that puzzle out and putting it back together, taking it out and putting it back together.

“So he knows everything about the sport. But not about the sport of kickboxing.”

But Usyk, 39, replied: “Listen, when I was young, I too was doing kickboxing, boxing…”

And a shocked Verhoeven, 37, interjected: “Nobody told me that! Maybe he throws a high kick.”

Usyk only began training in boxing at the age of 15 – having first played football before taking up other forms of martial arts.

He revealed: “My (first) coach is not a kickboxing coach.

“It’s like a jujitsu, wrestling, boxing is one coach, but another sport is like a crazy man.

“But then I look for good coach. It’s my first coach, Lapin, Sergey. My father say, ‘Hey, try boxing.’ I said, ‘Okay.’”

Usyk won Olympic gold in 2012 and became cruiserweight world champ four years later following just ten professional bouts.

He moved up to heavyweight in 2019 and beat Anthony Joshua for the heavyweight titles just two years later.

In the period since, he has beaten AJ, Tyson Fury and Daniel Dubois TWICE while running out of contenders left to face.

Verhoeven’s shot at the famous WBC title over the likes of Agit Kabayel has caused controversy but Usyk is adamant he has prepared all the same.

He said: “Yes, it’s another different style. But we have not much but video of one fight pro in boxing fight.

“But we look at kickboxing fights but my team helped me my coach my my team prepare my road I trust my team but we do it.”

Verhoeven won his one and only boxing bout in 2014 against Janos Finfera and rejected a switch to MMA and the UFC to take on Usyk.

And he has vowed to score an unthinkable upset at the iconic Pyramids in Giza.

He told Usyk: “I’ll beat you is because I’m bringing something different to the table that you haven’t seen before.

“You’ve seen everything there is in the sport of boxing. And I know you’re a champion.

“You have a champion mindset. And you’ve been watching all my videos and dissecting everything. And your team has been doing that.

“And you’ve been getting sparring partners and as much information as possible.

“But still, I’ll bring something to the table that you haven’t seen before. That’s going to be the difference, the biggest difference.

“And that’s going to be the reason why I’m going to beat you.”