Rico Verhoeven is a bad man.
The “King of Kickboxing” has dominated the Heavyweight kickboxing scene for about a decade now, defending the GLORY Heavyweight crown an absurd 13 times and setting multiple records for championship longevity. There are relatively few challenges left for him in GLORY, which is why some fans have been hoping for an MMA crossover, and there are also talks of facing Francis Ngannou in the boxing ring
.He’s not just a kickboxer, however. Verhoeven actually holds a 1-0 record
in pro MMA and has trained with MMA fighters, including Ngannou, in the past. He’s also worked quite a bit with current UFC Heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall, who generally does well to train with the best big men Europe has to offer. In a recent video, Verhoeven showed off the benefits of all these years of cross training at MMA gyms by shocking the champ with a double leg takedown!
Watch below:
“Surprised the champ [Tom Aspinall] while kickboxing with my takedown skils,” Verhoeven wrote in the caption, accompanied by a laughing emoji. In the video itself, Verhoeven can be heard yelling “Save this footage” immediately after his successful shot.
Clearly, this is a bit of tongue-in-cheek posting. By Verhoeven’s own admission, the two were kickboxing sparring when he flipped the script on Aspinall with his wall-side double leg. When wrestling in full boxing gloves, it’s pretty much over once the position is secured, so Aspinall had little choice but to tip over. All of that is to say: don’t read too deeply into this clip as evidence of weakness in Aspinall’s takedown defense.
Eventually, Verhoeven will face the victor of GLORY’s million dollar Heavyweight tournament. Aspinall, meanwhile, is scheduled to face Ciryl Gane atop the upcoming UFC 321 pay-per-view (PPV) fight card on Oct. 25 in Abu Dhabi.
Think the French kickboxing also tries to surprise the Englishman with a double leg?
