Rico Verhoeven cites kickboxing dominance in WBC title case

Rico Verhoeven has defended his right to challenge for a WBC bridgerweight title by drawing a parallel with Oleksandr Usyk's boxing achievements and pointing to the sanctioning body's recognition of combat sports beyond boxing.

“Like what Oleksandr did within boxing, I did within kickboxing for 12 years. Defeat everybody and some people multiple times. The WBC is also the only organisation that looks at kickboxing and Muay Thai. So for them, they recognised and gave me my credentials.”

— Rico Verhoeven, via BBC Sport

What Rico Verhoeven said

The Dutch kickboxer holds a Glory heavyweight championship reign that has seen him defend against all available challengers since 2013. The WBC introduced bridgerweight as a new division in 2020 for fighters between cruiserweight and heavyweight, and has previously awarded special titles to crossover athletes. Verhoeven's argument for inclusion rests on the organisation's history with Muay Thai and kickboxing, sports the WBC added to its recognition programme in recent years.

What it moves

Speaking to BBC Sport, Verhoeven said: "Like what Oleksandr did within boxing, I did within kickboxing for 12 years. Defeat everybody and some people multiple times. The WBC is also the only organisation that looks at kickboxing and Muay Thai. So for them, they recognised and gave me my credentials." The WBC will decide whether his kickboxing record justifies a title shot or whether he must build a boxing résumé first.

Source: bbc.com. Full Rico Verhoeven fight history and recent news at boxingnews.com.