Would any current heavyweight beat Verhoeven in a kickboxing match?

Nope, none of them. This is why today was completely embarrassing

 

Boxing has gotten embarrassed again like with Ngannou.

 

Haha, no, a few leg kicks and any boxer is done.

 

No... If he was allowed to kick Usyk he would have stopped him in the first round

 

Boxers are specialists that's why it's incredibly rare that anyone from another discipline does anything of significance when they come over, and probably why so few boxers leave their side of the lane. I know there's been some fights like Mercer but they're few and far between.

 

He stopped the any of them in one round a few leg kicks would be enough.

 

NONE. He'd absolutely **** them up!

 

No actual kickboxers have been able to beat Rico for over a decade. So no, of course not.

The best shot anyone outside of kickboxing would have at beating him at his own game would probably be Ciryl Gane.

 

Imagine Rico vs Wilder in Kickboxing... Rico as one of the best kickers in the game with legs quadruple the size of Wilder's.

 

When you have serious knockout power, there's always a very slim puncher's chance. But Rico's not stupid. He would follow the same gameplan that Masato Kobayashi used against Vince Philips and, to a lesser extent, Alexey Ignashov used against King Arthur Williams. Circle, circle, circle. A lot lateral movement to create angles and then batter him with leg kicks. Stay out of punching range. Maybe mix in some head kicks here and there to try to take him out in one shot, but the focus early would be on the legs. Boxers' legs aren't conditioned to taking leg kicks. And if the boxer unknowingly chose to fight in a bladed stance, the effect would be even worse. The first two minutes would be the most dangerous for Rico, but if he got past that and was able to damage their legs, then the his victory would be almost assured.

Rico is primarily a boxing centric kickboxer. However, he is a competent kicker as well, especially when he comes to leg kicks. He's great at battering his opponent with the inside leg kick as well, but in these fights, it would be preferred just to attack the outside leg to stay away from punching range. Once the boxer's legs are sufficiently damaged, it would just be target practice. You still wouldn't chance getting in punching range just to be safe, but a huge amount of the boxer's punching power would be gone at this point. He could still continue to batter the legs until the boxer couldn't stand anymore or possibly take him out with a head kick, too. There would be no reason to chance boxing with the guy if he didn't need to, but, at that point, it would be pretty safe to do that, too.

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Who also happens to be a kickboxer (Muay Thai), so I wouldn’t count him as “outside of kickboxing” just because he competes in MMA now.

 

Pretty much every MMA fighter is a "kickboxer" to some degree. Its a fundamental part of their skillset.

 

A washed up Franz Botha beat K1 legends Peter Aerts and Jerome Lebanner. If they can learn how to check low kicks and adapt to the different stance and distance then yes.

 

No, they are not. Only a very few MMA fighters competed on a high level in kickboxing/Muay Thai. Gane was 14-0 in Muay Thai before his MMA career even started.

Training kickboxing/Muay Thai is different than being a kickboxer/Muay Thai fighter.