Will Francis Ngannou Face Rico Verhoeven?
PFL World Champion Francis Ngannou may have a future opponent in Rico Verhoeven, the kickboxing world title holder. Rumors and quotes have been circulating recently.
Francis Ngannou
Cameroon’s Francis Ngannou was the UFC heavyweight champion and was feared for his striking power, with an incredible 85% knockout win rate. Since walking away from the organization, he took on two blockbuster boxing fights against champions Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. Afterward, he returned to MMA to capture the PFL heavyweight title with a first-round knockout.
Rico Verhoeven
The Dutch-born Rico Verhoeven captured the GLORY Kickboxing World title in 2014 and has not lost since, he now has compiled 11 title defenses plus a Grand Prix championship along the way. He is best known for his fights against Badr Hari. The kickboxer has a 32% knockout win rate and has largely cleared out the heavyweight division. His next bout is a rematch against Levi Rigters then hopefully he can face Antonio Plazibat, after that, there’s no one left in this division.
Francis Ngannou vs. Rico Verhoeven
When Francis Ngannou left the UFC, he was fielding offers from many organizations as the hottest free agent in combat sports. GLORY Kickboxing circulated a story stating that they had sent Ngannou an offer. In a conversation with me, Ngannou said that this story was simply false. In no uncertain terms, he said: “No, no. I never received an offer from GLORY.“
The Cameroonian athlete had a singular kickboxing win before he made his professional MMA debut. Reflecting on this match, Francis Ngannou told me: “Well, I remember it was a moment that I just wanted to fight. I was very excited, was very hungry, and was training all the time. I wanted to fight. My kickboxing wasn’t great though … But I was just like, I have the will to win. I was going there for everything. It was quite a good experience.”
The kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven has a singular MMA victory from 2015. Verhoeven and Ngannou have each competed professionally across kickboxing, MMA, and boxing. The ruleset in a potential could be mixed following a long history of kickboxers vs. MMA fighters, such as we used to see K-1 vs. PRIDE events.. In conversation with the PFL though; they’re not looking to mix rules.
Speaking in an interview with Ariel Helwani, Verhoeven implored the public for this match. He said:
“What I would like to say to them is just, I think when we’re talking about ‘Baddest on the Planet’, and we’re talking about crossover fights, this must happen! It hasn’t happened because we’ve done the most crazy fights, and this is one of them that needs to be added to the list. So let’s make it happen!
“Let’s find out who it is…the crossover talks, they’ve been going on for quite some time. For example, what’s going on in [Saudi Arabia] is awesome. They’ve put mixed martial arts on the map in a different way…there’s so many different flavors. Could be a home-and-away fight, kickboxing or MMA fight, which likely ends up 1-1. But a boxing match, that’s interesting, because it’s a different way for both of us.”
