Rico Verhoeven

Rico Verhoeven (Ricardo Verhoeven, born 10 April 1989 in Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands) is a Dutch heavyweight combat-sports star known as the “King of Kickboxing.” Standing 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) and weighing about 122 kg (269 lb), Verhoeven fights primarily as a heavyweight kickboxer with a style rooted in kickboxing and Kyokushin, and he has spent most of his career training at Superpro Sportcenter under coach Dennis Krauweel.

He began martial arts at age five (starting with Kyokushin under his father, a karate black belt), transitioned into kickboxing, and by 16 was already fighting adults due to his size. Turning professional in 2004, he also competed in K-1, It’s Showtime, and SUPERKOMBAT before signing with GLORY, where he became the promotion’s longest-reigning heavyweight champion and defended the title a record 13 times. He has been continually ranked as the world’s #1 heavyweight kickboxer by Combat Press since the rankings began in September 2014, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest kickboxers ever, holding the GLORY heavyweight title for 4,220 days (over 11 years) while winning 26 straight fights under the GLORY banner as champion.

In addition to his kickboxing résumé (76 fights: 66 wins, 21 by KO; 10 losses), Verhoeven has also competed in boxing and MMA, owning a 1–0 professional boxing record (KO win over János Finfera on 26 April 2014 in Darmstadt) and a 1–0 MMA record (TKO win over Viktor Bogutzki on 19 October 2015 in Romania). In the later stage of his GLORY run, he headlined major events such as HIT IT (TKO over Hesdy Gerges on 29 Oct 2022), unified his title against interim champion Tariq Osaro (UD on 4 Nov 2023), won the 2024 GLORY Heavyweight Grand Prix (including a TKO of Levi Rigters in the final on 9 Mar 2024), and defended again versus Rigters at Collision 7 (UD on 7 Dec 2024) and against Artem Vakhitov at GLORY 100 (UD on 14 Jun 2025). He later announced he was vacating the GLORY heavyweight title on 20 November 2025 after not renewing his contract.

Outside the ring, he has appeared in TV and film (including the 2022 docu-series “RICO: Dream Big”), runs a YouTube channel, and is noted as being friends with Eddie Hall and Tom Aspinall; as of September 2024, he is engaged to Naomy van Beem and has three children with his ex-wife Jacky Duchenne.