Rico Verhoeven

Rico Verhoeven (born 10 April 1989) is a Dutch professional kickboxer who currently competes in the heavyweight division of GLORY, where he is the reigning Glory Heavyweight Champion.

A professional since 2004, he also competed in the K-1, It's Showtime and SUPERKOMBAT promotions.

He is currently ranked the number one heavyweight in the world by Combat Press.

He was drawn against Russian mixed martial artist Sergei Kharitonov at the opening round of the sixteen-man 2012 Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam held at Glory 4: Tokyo - 2012 Heavyweight Grand Slam in Saitama, Japan on 31 December 2012.

As he was leading the judges' scorecards after the first two, two-minute rounds, he advanced to the quarter-finals where he lost out to the eventual tournament winner Semmy Schilt by the same margin.

He defeated Jhonata Diniz via unanimous decision at Glory 7: Milan in Milan, Italy on 20 April 2013.

He rematched Errol Zimmerman at Glory 9: New York - 2013 95kg Slam in New York City on 22 June 2013.

Despite being deducted a point for rabbit punching in round one, he outworked and outstruck Zimmerman for three rounds and won by unanimous decision.

He caused a major upset to win the Glory 11: Chicago - Heavyweight World Championship Tournament in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States in October 2013.

After taking a majority decision over Gökhan Saki in the semi-finals, and scoring a controversial knockdown in round one, he beat Daniel Ghiță by unanimous decision in the final.

Rico further established himself by defeating kickboxing legend Peter Aerts by split decision in the tightly contested main event of Glory 13: Tokyo - Welterweight World Championship Tournament in Tokyo, Japan on 21 December 2013.

Verhoeven has been continually ranked as the number one heavyweight kickboxer in the world by Combat Press since September 2014, when the rankings were first established.

Rico Verhoeven was born in Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands.

He began learning martial arts at age five, starting with Kyokushin.

He was trained by his father, a karate black belt.

After transitioning into kickboxing, Verhoeven began training at the age of seven and started competing against adults when he was only 16 years old, due to his large size.

He has trained mainly in Zevenbergen under Dennis Krauweel at Superpro Sportcenter, with fellow kickboxers Benjamin Adegbuyi, Albert Kraus and Alviar Lima.

After competing in K-1, It's Showtime and SUPERKOMBAT, Verhoeven signed with Glory World Series.

Verhoeven was scheduled to make his professional boxing debut against Nikolaj Falin at Mix Fight Gala XV in Darmstadt, Germany on 26 April 2014 but his opponent was changed to János Finfera for undisclosed reasons.

Verhoeven defeated the Hungarian by second-round knockout.

He rematched and defeated Daniel Ghiță via unanimous decision in a bout for the vacant Glory Heavyweight (+95 kg/209 lb) Championship at Glory 17: Los Angeles in Inglewood, California, US on June 21, 2014.

Verhoeven was scheduled to make the first defense of his Glory Heavyweight title against Errol Zimmerman at Glory 19: Virginia, in what would be their trilogy match.

Each fighter had previously won once, Verhoeven by decision, and Zimmerman by knockout.

Verhoeven kept to out fighting, looking to deal damage with body kicks and straight shots, while keeping his opponent at distance with snap kicks and teep kicks.

With a minute left in the first round, both fighters engaged in a wild exchange, with Errol being dropped at the end of it.

He was once again dropped with a front kick, with half a minute left in the round.

The fight ended in a technical knockout, as Zimmerman injured his left knee, following a missed spinning back kick.

For his second title defense, Verhoeven was scheduled to fight the former SUPERKOMBAT Heavyweight GP winner Benjamin Adegbuyi at Glory 22: Lille.

Adegebuyi managed to stun the champion in the first round, before Verhoeven took over in the second.

He dominated the rest of the affair, picking up in both volume and pace as the fight went on, while Adegbuyi slowed down.

Rico won the fight by unanimous decision (49–47, 49–47 and 50–45).

After this loss, Adegbuyi won the 2015 Glory Heavyweight Contender Tournament, to once again earn a title shot at Glory 26: Amsterdam, six months after their first fight.

The second fight ended with a first-round KO, with Verhoeven quickly overwhelming his opponent and knocking him out with right hook.

After this fight, Verhoeven changed his nickname from "Prince of Kickboxing" to "King of Kickboxing".

Verhoeven was scheduled to defend his title for the fourth time just three months later, at Glory 28: Paris, against the newly crowned FFC Heavyweight champion Mladen Brestovac.

Just as with his two previous title bouts against Benjamin Adegbuyi, Verhoeven was thoroughly dominant, despite a slow first round which he lost with one of the judges.

He won the fight by unanimous decision (49–46, 50–45, 50–45).

For his fifth consecutive title defense, Verhoeven was to face the Brazilian Anderson Braddock Silva at Glory 33: New Jersey.

Verhoeven began the fight with several leg kicks, which he would keep throwing for the duration of the bout, landing 16 kicks from 22 attempts in the first round alone.

Early in the second round, he knocked Silva down with an inside right leg kick.