UFC nearly landed the “Prince of Kickboxing.”
GLORY Kickboxing’s longest-reigning Heavyweight Champion, Rico Verhoeven, is preparing for the biggest fight of his career, a clash with unified boxing king Oleksandr Usyk for the WBC Heavyweight title at Glory of Giza on Sat., May 23, 2026, in Giza, Egypt.
Before committing to boxing, Verhoeven had multiple options on the table — including a contract offer from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The proposed debut would have come against fan favorite Derrick Lewis at UFC 324, the promotion’s first card on Paramount+.
When news of the declined deal surfaced, many fans assumed the UFC lowballed Verhoeven with a Contender Series-type contract (10k/10k). According to the Dutch champion, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“It was a decent offer, but when you put the two offers next to each other,” Verhoeven told Ariel Helwani. “Like a big crossover fight with Anthony Joshua with a serious paycheck as well or a crossover to the UFC, which is different because Derrick Lewis is an amazing fighter and big name but didn’t have the same stature that I’m looking for — it was a good debut fight to transiton to the UFC but I said no, let’s go for the Anthony Joshua fight so thats what happened.”
Verhoeven said the UFC’s financial package was comparable to what he earns in GLORY and emphasized that the promotion treated him with respect.
“It was a decent offer,” he explained. “I saw so much online that the UFC came in and gave me a bullshit offer because I’m a no-name. They definitely did not do that. They treated me with a lot of respect and gave me a really good offer, especially in terms of what they offer other fighters.”
Ultimately, however, the potential boxing payday — first against Anthony Joshua and now against Usyk — proved too lucrative to ignore.
At 36 years old, Verhoeven isn’t ruling out a future UFC crossover. But for now, the kickboxing icon has his sights set on Heavyweight boxing gold — and a mega payday to match.
He can always go to the UFC afterwards. He only has one or two chances to capitalize on a huge boxing payday. Similar to Ngannou.