Rico Verhoeven makes the ninth defense of his heavyweight kickboxing title against Badr Hari this coming Sunday, December 22 (AEDT). The pair meets in a highly anticipated rematch of their fight late 2016. The contest headlines “GLORY Collision 2: Unfinished Business” held at GelreDome in Arnhem, Netherlands.

Advertisements

The 30-year-old Dutch kickboxer holds the title for almost seven years. Prior earning the belt and “The King of Kickboxing” nickname mid 2014, Rico Verhoeven (55-10, 16 KO) won the four-man world championship tournament a year earlier.

This weekend Verhoeven squares off against his old foe, Badr Hari (106-13, 92 KO) or “The Golden Boy of Kickboxing“. The contest is one of the biggest fights of his career to date in terms of popularity, which Kickboxing Planet definitely lacks.

The pair first met in December 2016. The encounter ended in the second round after Hari sustained arm injury, and Verhoeven was declared the winner by way of TKO.

The resume of Verhoeven includes the victories against fellow-heavyweights Jamal Ben Saddik and Benjamin Adegbuyi, to name a couple. Earlier in his career, in addition to Hari, he also fought two other K-1 stars, taking a split decision against Peter Aerts and a majority decision against Gokhan Saki.

Riding the eleven-fight win streak since February 2015, one can say, Rico Verhoeven is indeed “The King of Kickboxing”. Well, at least of the current era in the heavyweight class, since the likes of Giorgio Petrosyan (or Kurt Sloane, Kickboxer himself, portrayed by Jean-Claude Van Damme in the 1989 movie) could definitely debate who is a real deal.

The first in line to challenge Rico Verhoeven is Badr Hari. The result of their second fight we will find out in less than a week.

How to watch GLORY Collision 2: Rico vs. Badr can be found here.

You can leave your comments below.