Turki Alalshikh is already sketching Oleksandr Usyk’s next move even before the 39-year-old steps into the ring on Saturday for the first-ever fight at the Pyramids of Giza. Usyk is scheduled to defend the WBC heavyweight belt against Rico Verhoeven in the open-air main event of Glory in Giza, and Alalshikh said he wants the winner headed toward something bigger next.
“We are planning something now to give to Usyk in the future,” Alalshikh said, adding that he knows the champion does not want to discuss what comes after this weekend. “We are planning, and I want to give a small secret,” he said, before pointing to Istanbul: “We are planning to do something amazing in Istanbul.” He also said he wants to do something amazing near Hagia Sophia next year, a plan that would depend on Usyk getting past Verhoeven.
The Giza bout arrives at a moment when Usyk is already deep into a run of high-stakes heavyweight nights. Saturday will be his seventh consecutive world title fight and his fourth consecutive bout as a favorite, with the champion listed at 20-1 against a challenger who carries a 4-1 mark into the meeting. The winner of the fight at the pyramids will leave with more than a belt; he will also carry the latest piece of a heavyweight map that Alalshikh appears intent on redrawing in the months ahead.
That map has been taking shape since May 2024, when Usyk fought Tyson Fury for the first time and began working almost exclusively with the Saudi promoter, even though he is not officially signed to Riyadh Season. The relationship has continued through the champion’s recent career changes, including his split with longtime promoter Alex Krassyuk just before his second win over Daniel Dubois in July 2025. Since then, Alalshikh has treated Usyk less like a one-off attraction and more like the center of a long campaign.
That makes the Giza main event matter beyond the novelty of boxing in front of one of the world’s best-known monuments. Usyk’s fight with Verhoeven is being staged as the first-ever at the Pyramids of Giza, and the idea of an immediate follow-up in Istanbul shows how aggressively Alalshikh is thinking if the champion gets through Saturday. For a fighter who has spent much of the last year under the Saudi promoter’s umbrella, the next chapter may already be waiting on the other side of this one.
Usyk’s name is already being linked to that wider heavyweight picture in ways that go beyond his own camp. A separate look at the Giza bout, Usyk Verhoeven in Ägypten: Kabayel drängt auf WM-Chance bei den Pyramiden, and Agit Kabayel’s view that the matchup is good for fans, in Agit Kabayel says Verhoeven-Usyk bout is good for fans, underline how closely the division is watching the outcome. But for now, everything runs through Saturday in Egypt, where one win could send Usyk toward Istanbul and Hagia Sophia next year, if Alalshikh gets his way.
