1. Rico Verhoeven was born on 10 April 1989 and is a Dutch professional kickboxer, former professional boxer and mixed martial artist who currently competes in the heavyweight division of GLORY, where he is the reigning Glory Heavyweight Champion.
50 Facts About Rico Verhoeven
1. 2.
Rico Verhoeven is currently ranked the number one heavyweight in the world by Combat Press.
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Rico Verhoeven began learning martial arts at age five, starting with Kyokushin.
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Rico Verhoeven was trained by his father, a karate black belt.
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Rico Verhoeven has trained mainly in Zevenbergen under Dennis Krauweel at Superpro Sportcenter, with fellow kickboxers Benjamin Adegbuyi, Albert Kraus and Alviar Lima.
6.
Rico Verhoeven 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.
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Rico Verhoeven defeated Jhonata Diniz via unanimous decision at Glory 7: Milan in Milan, Italy on 20 April 2013.
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Rico Verhoeven rematched Errol Zimmerman at Glory 9: New York - 2013 95kg Slam in New York City on 22 June 2013.
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Rico Verhoeven caused a major upset to win the Glory 11: Chicago - Heavyweight World Championship Tournament in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States in October 2013.
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Rico Verhoeven 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.
11.
Rico 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 Janos Finfera for undisclosed reasons.
12.
Rico Verhoeven rematched and defeated Daniel Ghita via unanimous decision in a bout for the vacant Glory Heavyweight Championship at Glory 17: Los Angeles in Inglewood, California, US on June 21,2014.
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Rico 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.
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Rico 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.
15.
Rico Verhoeven was dropped with a front kick, with half a minute left in the round.
16.
Adegebuyi managed to stun the champion in the first round, before Rico Verhoeven took over in the second.
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Rico Verhoeven dominated the rest of the affair, picking up in both volume and pace as the fight went on, while Adegbuyi slowed down.
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Rico Verhoeven won the fight by unanimous decision.
19.
Rico 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.
20.
Just as with his two previous title bouts against Benjamin Adegbuyi, Rico Verhoeven was thoroughly dominant, despite a slow first round which he lost with one of the judges.
21.
Rico Verhoeven won the fight by unanimous decision.
22.
Rico 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.
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Rico Verhoeven would knock Silva down for the third time with five seconds left in the second round, forcing the referee to wave the fight off.
24.
Rico Verhoeven scored the 50th victory of his kickboxing career with a TKO.
25.
Rico Verhoeven dominated the fight, with Lazaar being unable to cover the distance, being six inches shorter than the champion.
26.
Rico Verhoeven abandoned his usual strategy of outfighting, unleashing several combinations on the MMA fighter.
27.
Rico Verhoeven fought Jamal Ben Saddik in defense of Glory heavyweight title, on 9 December 2017.
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Ben Saddik found success early on in the fight, before Rico Verhoeven took over as the fight went on, winning by a fifth-round TKO.
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Rico Verhoeven was again scheduled to defend his title at Glory 54: Birmingham, in a rematch with Mladen Brestovac.
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Rico Verhoeven had won five straight fights since their first meeting, while Brestovac came into the fight on a three fight winning streak.
31.
Rico Verhoeven was scheduled to defend his title for a record setting eighth time at Glory 59: Amsterdam, when he faced the WGP Heavyweight champion Guto Inocente.
32.
Rico Verhoeven began the fight in an uncharacteristically aggressive fashion, and was knocked down at the 1:40 minute mark of the first round.
33.
Rico Verhoeven found more success in the second round, but was knocked down with a head kick in the third round.
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Accordingly, Rico Verhoeven was scheduled to take part in a four-man heavyweight tournament, facing Hesdy Gerges in the semifinals, after Gerges called Rico Verhoeven out.
35.
Rico Verhoeven won the semifinal bout against Hesdy Gerges by unanimous decision, and the final bout against Tarik Khbabez by TKO, after Khbabez retired at the end of the first round.
36.
Rico Verhoeven defeated Ben Saddik by TKO in the fourth round.
37.
Rico Verhoeven was expected to make his eleventh Glory heavyweight title defense against Antonio Plazibat.
38.
The title bout was initially supposed to take place in spring 2023, but was postponed after Rico Verhoeven suffered a knee injury in training.
39.
Rico Verhoeven won the fight by unanimous decision.
40.
Rico Verhoeven was scheduled to face Sofian Laidouni in the quarterfinals of the Glory Heavyweight Grand Prix on March 9,2024.
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Rico Verhoeven won the fight by a routine unanimous decision.
42.
Rico Verhoeven next faced Nabil Khachab in the semifinal bout of the one-day tournament.
43.
Rico Verhoeven captured the tournament title, as well as the $500,000 prize, with a second-round technical knockout of Levi Rigters.
44.
In September 2024 it was reported that Rico Verhoeven would defend his Glory heavyweight title at Collision 7 on December 7,2024 at GelreDome in Arnhem, Netherlands against the winner of the Glory 95 main event bout between Levi Rigters vs Bahram Rajabzadeh.
45.
On November 8,2024 it was announced that Rico Verhoeven was scheduled to face Rigters.
46.
In March 2025, it was reported that Rico Verhoeven would defend his Glory heavyweight title against former two-time Glory Light Heavyweight Champion Artem Vakhitov at Glory 100 on June 14,2025.
47.
Rico Verhoeven made his MMA pro debut at RXF 20: Rico Verhoeven vs Bogutzki in Sibiu, Romania on 19 October 2015 defeating Viktor Bogutzki by TKO in the 1st round due to punches.
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Rico Verhoeven has a wide arsenal of attacks, most notably his powerful low kicks, and a tight defense.
49.
Rico Verhoeven worked closely with WBC and Lineal heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury, whom he credits with turning his jab into the highly effective weapon it is.
50.
Rico Verhoeven made his film debut in a small role opposite Alain Moussi in the sequel Kickboxer: Retaliation.