The heavyweight king of kickboxing is finally back.
GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven is set to return for a title unification bout against interim champ Tariq Osaro at GLORY Collision 6 on Nov. 4 at the GelreDome in Arnhem, Netherlands. Verhoeven has been sidelined due to a knee injury for the majority of the year and last competed in Oct. 2022, defeating Hesdy Gerges via fifth-round knockout.
Verhoeven (60-10, 20 KO) is widely regarded as the No. 1 heavyweight in the world in kickboxing. A 34-year-old native of the Netherlands, Verhoeven has held the GLORY heavyweight belt since 2014, racking up 10 title defenses — a GLORY record — and defeating the likes of Badr Hari, Gokhan Saki, Errol Zimmerman, and more.
Verhoeven has not tasted defeat in 16 consecutive bouts, a streak stretching back to 2015.
In Osaro (25-2-1, 13 KO), he meets an up-and-coming 27-year-old who earned the biggest win of his kickboxing career with a stunning fifth-round knockout of Antonio Plazibat this past June to capture the GLORY interim heavyweight title.
Affectionately nicknamed “Cookie,” Osaro has been victorious in five of his six appearances in the GLORY ring, with all five of his wins ending in knockouts.