Rico Verhoeven Breaks Silence on Deontay Wilder Offer
Rico Verhoeven has confirmed he was formally offered a fight against former WBC heavyweight boxing champion Deontay Wilder. The Dutch kickboxing icon revealed the details in a 2025 interview with DAZN, disclosing that the proposed bout was earmarked for the undercard of the Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua heavyweight showdown. Verhoeven has held the GLORY Heavyweight World Championship for over a decade and is widely regarded as the greatest heavyweight kickboxer in history. He said discussions reached a meaningful stage before stalling. The revelation has set off fierce debate across the combat sports world, with fans and pundits on both sides of the argument.
Background: The Rise of Crossover Combat Sports
Crossover fights between elite strikers from different disciplines are nothing new, but their commercial scale has surged since the early 2020s. Exhibition bouts featuring YouTubers and retired athletes helped prime the market, yet appetite for genuine elite crossover contests — world-class competitors at the peak of their powers — has grown alongside that novelty wave. Verhoeven has long been at the centre of such speculation. Since capturing the GLORY Heavyweight title in 2013, the Dutchman has built a profile that reaches well beyond kickboxing, filling major European arenas and amassing millions of social media followers.
Wilder, meanwhile, remains one of boxing's most feared and bankable names despite his trilogy losses to Fury. The numbers tell the story: 43 stoppages in 47 professional fights. Any card bearing his name carries both genuine danger and serious commercial pull. Promoters have identified the Fury-Joshua undercard as a platform capable of hosting a crossover spectacle at this scale, given the event's projected global pay-per-view reach.
What Is Happening Now
Verhoeven told DAZN that a concrete offer was placed on the table — a sign of serious intent from at least one promotional party. Talks focused on a crossover rules format, the increasingly standard structure for bouts pairing elite kickboxers with boxers, typically blending kickboxing techniques with modified boxing regulations. No binding agreement was reached. Verhoeven also referenced his pursuit of a world title fight against IBF heavyweight champion Filip Hrgovic, making clear that a legitimate route into sanctioned boxing remains a priority alongside any crossover opportunity.
DAZN reported that Verhoeven's team and relevant promotional stakeholders were in contact, though the timeline and precise terms of any renewed approach remain unclear. In the United Kingdom, where Fury and Joshua command enormous public followings, the story landed immediately. A Verhoeven appearance on such a card would mark a significant moment for kickboxing's mainstream ambitions.
Key Players: Who Wants What
Verhoeven arrives at this crossroads as the undisputed force in heavyweight kickboxing — a fighter with nothing left to prove in his own sport and everything to gain from exposure to a global boxing audience of tens of millions. His stated ambition to challenge Hrgovic for a recognised world title gives the crossover logic an extra layer of strategy. A spot on the Fury-Joshua undercard would be an almost unbeatable advertisement for that campaign.
Wilder is the ideal opponent for this kind of fight. A genuine former world champion with a fearsome reputation, his right hand remains one of the most dangerous weapons in heavyweight combat sports. For Wilder, a crossover bout under modified rules could offer a lucrative and relatively lower-risk route back to prominence after his Fury defeats. Fury and Joshua sit at the gravitational centre of the entire event, and their promoters — with substantial pay-per-view revenue on the line — have every reason to build the strongest undercard possible. A Verhoeven-Wilder contest would serve that objective well.
Regional and Global Implications
In the UK, where both Fury and Joshua are national sporting figures, a Verhoeven-Wilder undercard fight would add an international dimension to an already charged domestic occasion. British combat sports fans have shown a consistent appetite for crossover bouts, and a contest of this calibre would further strengthen the UK's standing as the world's leading destination for high-stakes boxing.
Across continental Europe, and especially in the Netherlands, Verhoeven stepping onto a stage this large would be a landmark moment — one that could lift kickboxing's profile in markets where boxing has long dominated combat sports broadcasting. Globally, the fight would air on DAZN and potentially additional pay-per-view partners, reaching audiences across North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, regions where Wilder's name recognition and the novelty of a crossover format both carry commercial weight. At a governance level, a crossover fight of this prominence would sharpen already active discussions within boxing's sanctioning bodies and kickboxing's governing organisations about the regulatory frameworks required to host such events safely and legitimately.
What Comes Next
The immediate priority for all parties is the formal confirmation and scheduling of Fury versus Joshua, expected to be announced for late 2025, with the UK and Saudi Arabia the most frequently cited venues. Once the main event is locked, undercard negotiations typically move fast. That is the moment when a Verhoeven-Wilder fight — if it is genuinely in play — will either be confirmed or quietly dropped.
Verhoeven has made clear his primary boxing goal is a title shot against Hrgovic, which could be scheduled independently of the Fury-Joshua card. Wilder's team is expected to weigh several options in the second half of 2025, and any crossover offer will need to compete against straightforward all-boxing matchups. Formal announcements from DAZN, Queensberry Promotions, or Matchroom Boxing could come within weeks, as the shape of what may be the decade's biggest combat sports event slowly comes into focus.
