Rico Verhoeven looking forward to ‘street fight’ with Anderson Silva at GLORY 33

GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven is probably the most technically proficient fighter that heavyweight kickboxing has ever produced. He started training at five years old under his karate black belt father and these days supplements his grueling kickboxing regimen with regular training sessions alongside world heavyweight boxing champion, Tyson Fury. But on Friday night, he will apparently be having a street fight.

Verhoeven’s lifetime of training, plus his relentless work ethic, has made him defensively almost watertight and given him a multitude of attacking options. His boxing, distance, and footwork are light years ahead of many fighters who are, according to the rankings, supposedly his closest rivals.

It is against this backdrop that his next opponent, Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva, has had to draw up his gameplan for their fight in the main event of this Friday’s GLORY 33 New Jersey event in Trenton. Silva is trying to achieve what Verhoeven’s last eleven GLORY opponents have failed to do and he thinks knows what to do. He’s said that attempting to out-technique Verhoeven is a futile effort and instead he intends to “make it a street fight.”

Verhoeven seems delighted when this is put to him. “Anderson wants a street fight? Great!” he beams. “I have faced so many different fighters and so many different styles, I can fight however he wants. I always …

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