When Francis Ngannou shocked the world on Saturday night with his performance against Tyson Fury, it opened up the floodgates for more crossover events.
For a long time, these match-ups weren’t competitive and for good reason, such is the nature of one competitor stepping outside of their comfort zone.
In Saudi Arabia, Ngannou wasn’t just competitive with “The Gypsy King”, he won the fight in most people’s eyes.
After seeing what the former UFC heavyweight champion was able to accomplish, it was only a matter of time before MMA fighters started to shoot their shots at some of the top stars in boxing.
The most recent name to call for a crossover match-up might have more credibility to his claims as he believes he can replicate a similar level of performance to Ngannou.
Glory Heavyweight Champion Rico Verhoeven Calls For His Time To Crossover From Kickboxing
As the long-reigning Glory heavyweight champion, Dutch kickboxer Rico Verhoeven is held up as one of the all-time greats in his field
Despite everything that he has accomplished in kickboxing, much to the confusion of Joe Rogan, kickboxing has never really taken off in the United States.
With an opportunity to introduce himself to a whole new audience, the “King of Kickboxing” is raring to go and test himself in a crossover match-up.
Having trained extensively with the likes of Fury, Ngannou and Tom Aspinall in the past, Verhoeven is no stranger to dipping his toe into both boxing and MMA where he believes he can be competitive at the highest level in either.
Appearing on Fight Nation with Jimmy Smith, the world champion said that watching Ngannou compete with the best in the world in the ring only gave him more confidence about his potential outside of kickboxing.
“In the whole crossover game, that’s where I think the real challenge is and yeah whatever. We could do a boxing fight, we could do an MMA fight like whatever, I’m open. I’m open to whoever wants it. What I saw Francis do, I know I can do exactly the same or better. I’m open for the whole top heavyweight game in boxing or MMA, let’s do it.”
Verhoeven returns this Saturday night at Glory: Collison 6 where he faces interim heavyweight champion Tariq Osaro in a unification clash.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnd Here We Go …
This would be a fun MMA tourny if everyone had a year to train. Random draw for the quarters. Let Aspinall be the alternate or better yet let the Pavlovich vs Aspinall winner in the tourny and let the loser be the first alternate and Stipe can be the second alternate.
Jones
Wilder
Ngannou
Pavlovich
Verhoeven
Fury
Gable
Ryan
Rico is a beast, at kickboxing. I don’t see him going far in MMA or boxing. He’s basically the king right now in kickboxing.
Looking for a one and done big payday in boxing
Verhoeven top 3 UFC HW. Let’s get it done.
Verhoeven is still only 34. Had one fight in boxing and one in MMA in 2014 and 15.
Crazy he has been fighting pro kickboxing since he was 16.
How old is he getting also?
Nevermind. 34 he can still learn to sprawl n brawl.
Honestly I can see him getting destroyed by Francis easily.
It’d be cool to see him in the UFC. Match him up with Gane.
Hes not getting those big boxing paydays and opportunities like Ngannou has though. Not enough name value, at least so far.
it would be more fun to see him fight mma, small gloves, all strikes permitted, rather than see him box and lose access to his entertaining kicking game. that said, he’s probably more vulnerable to lower-tier fighters in mma than in boxing.
damn thats young to have gone PRO