THE NON-CONFORMIST OF COMBAT
I t was late February when the shocking announcement was made that heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk would face off against heavyweight kickboxer Rico Verhoeven at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt on May 23. The Ring Magazine and WBC titles would be at stake in a 12-round fight. The stunning locale was apt, as boxing fans and media responded by kicking sand in the faces of the event organizers and Usyk himself. Who the hell is Rico Verhoeven? Why would a pound-for-pound great like Usyk fight a Dutch martial artist whose only professional boxing match was a 2014 stoppage win over an opponent with five losses in five fights? The whole thing looked like a monstrous joke … then came fight night. Verhoeven provided Usyk with perhaps the toughest test of his 13-year professional career before being stopped controversially in 11 rounds. At the time of the stoppage, two judges had the fight even at 95-95, with the third official giving Verhoeven a two-point lead at 96-94. A large percentage of the media had the challenger way ahead. How the hell did that happen? Well, firstly, Verhoeven is a diligent fighting machine who is accustomed to stand-up combat. In short, to be a kickboxer, you must know how to box. In addition to working with highly respected coach Dennis Krauweel, the challenger’s skills had also been fine- tuned by world-class boxing trainer Peter Fury, so Verhoeven has sparred a plethora of top heavyweight boxers. And perhaps more important than all of that was Verhoeven’s I.Q. In the GLORY kickboxing promotion, he’d gone 28-1, including 26-0 during a 12- year stretch, against some of the finest martial artists in the world. That is a record-breaking reign, and it didn’t come easily. Verhoeven knows how to execute a game plan. He knows how to adapt and adjust. He knows how to absorb punishment and fight back. Put simply: He knows!
While it has been said that Usyk came into the fight half-cocked – he was a career-heavy 233¼ pounds – there is no denying what we saw. The Ukrainian maestro was tested to the limit by an exceptional combat athlete who stunned not only Usyk but the entire boxing world. And his journey in boxing is far from over. How dedicated is Rico Verhoeven? He was at the tail end of a cardio workout when I asked the first question: The Ring: You moved in with your father when you were very young and began learning martial arts. What were the pros and cons of training so intensely and being so disciplined when you were just a child? Rico Verhoeven: Wow, the pros and the cons. The discipline you need when you’re older gets ingrained in you at a very young age. And that’s not just in the gym, because it comes home with you, day in and day out. That can be a pro and a con, because sometimes I’d think, “Hey, you’re also my dad, so don’t forget that you’re not just a trainer.” Another pro is that you can talk about [martial arts] on a daily basis, so if you have questions, you can ask them right away and then change things in training. That’s a big plus. Everything you do, you take home. You get reminded of what you did right and what you did wrong. All the decisions that you make are getting put in a different light. Hey, do you want to succeed? What do you want to become? You want to become world champion? Well, you’ve got to make choices. It’s hard because all of these pros have cons. It depends on what light you shine on it. It comes both ways. The Ring: Would you endorse this approach for other kids? RV: What I try to ingrain into my
Rico nailed Usyk more often than many elite-level opponents had managed.
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