Rico Verhoeven: The Brabantian Bulldozer-The Locomotive of the Lowlands-The King of Kickboxing.

Comparing Ngannou to Rico is like comparing David Price to Usyk.

 

I'm aware you made the thread. Doesn't imply every post is towards you. I'm going to wait and see if Rico does anything worthwhile before making judgement. I hope he continues boxing. He surprised the heck outta me vs Usyk. We'll just have to wait and see.

 

Anyone interested in watching Rico's kickboxing matches should check out his two (?) fights with Badr Hari. Hari was an incredible talent, equally huge and a crafty hitter. While I don't know too much about glory kickboxing at heavyweight - I like the smaller guys - I do know that Hari was an incredible talent and two of Rico's best wins. Definitely worth watching.

Rico also beat an old, old Peter Aerts, in a fight worth watching just to see the passing of the torch to Rico.

 

You can get head kicked in MMA but it's nowhere near as common as in kickboxing, especially at heavyweight in MMA - which absolutely sucks dick.

Also, I'm pretty sure Ngannou has never actually been kicked in the head in a pro fight. I could be wrong on that but he hasn't in the UFC and the bare minimum research (a Google search with an AI answer) says he hasn't.

 

I disagree pretty heavily with this bit and the implications - intentional or otherwise, idk.

It is far riskier to have your weight on the front foot in kickboxing for the threat of low kicks which massively changes how the lead hook and jab is thrown, and how you shift weight into a proper right hand.

So to compensate for this, as you probably know and can see, a bunch of kickboxers simply change how they stand to be a bit more square. This is fine and works in boxing but it changes how easy it is to move linearly, and changes both the range and speed of straight rights, and has big implications for the jab. Being square is also very good for head movement as you can shift your weight left and right easily, but it doesn't have the chest code which the bladed stance has. When bladed, half of the body is 'behind' the fighter which makes it an illegal target in boxing.

Another way in which punching fundamentals change is that in kickboxing, you're on one leg a lot more often than you are in boxing. Someone like Chingiz Allazov or Yuki Yoza use the swinging back of their kicking leg to their stance to generate power in a punch, letting them kick within combinations. And Someone like Rodtang or Tyrone Spong are great at throwing punches, on one leg, off checked kicks to the leg or body and putting their foot back down as they move into the punch. Then basically every Thai I've ever seen - and Jonathan Haggarty - are able to floating step into range with their lead leg off the floor and enter in with punches. While these aren't hindrances in a boxing match, they're absolutely useless and just kinda become wasted training time.

While you only mention punching technique, the footwork, distance, defence and styles in kickboxing is very different to boxing. The distance is primarily a step outside of kicking range in the same way a boxing match takes place a step outside of jabbing range. The footwork of a fighter who relys on kicks will be to set up kicks, and they'll often find themselves coming up short against guys who constantly adjust distance - which to Rico's absolute credit is what I thought would happen to him.

Not Rico specifically, but the defence in kickboxing is really bad at times. A lot of it is a "cover up, hide behind the gloves and wait for my turn" style of defence and that doesn't really work in boxing when any high level fighter with a brain will just keep on punching and pry that guard open. Then there's the Thai style of defence which is really a long guard without the daggers of their elbows so they fold their arms into their opponents in a clinch. That just gets you punched in the face often in boxing, whereas you'll get in a knee and a quick reset in kickboxing. There's other aspects of defence which change too, for example, in Veeraphol Sahaprom said in his first boxing match, he blocked a body punch with his knee and the crowd laughed. That's an isolated incident ofc but it does highlight a point - you don't want to drop your hands when there's kicks involved because that might look like a body kick until it's past the centreline and heading straight upstairs. Same goes for throwing body shots. Nobody likes to level change in with a hard hook or straight to the body when the repercussions could be facial reconstruction after a sudden and deadly encounter with a shin or knee.

I'm sure there's more examples but these were the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

 

Top post CST.

I actually really like Rico. He's a really top bloke. I just not sure how he matches up stylistically with big uppercutters like AJ or Dubious, for example. That pressure fighting Jim Carey style seems ripe for a big shot underneath. However, I can see the constant pressure and bullying bothering them if done right, AJ especially if he ever got pushed around. Would probably mentally impact him too.

Did you watch Haggerty - Yoza, George? This bout actually really shows the benefit of boxing approach to footwork and angles. Yoza just looked lost. I wonder if Rico could ever add so something like this to his game. Probably not given his age.

Also highly recommend checking out Veeraphol Vs Karuhat if you haven't. Karuhat is the one in history who I do wish transitioned.

 

Yeah, I did but not until it was posted on YouTube a couple of weeks ago. Absolutely brilliant fight. I expected Yoza to win too, going into that one. I figured the low kicks, cut kicks and body work would be kind of awful for Haggarty and his movement who used to rely a little on his elbow up close in Muay Thai. I also fell into the math trap of thinking well if Yoza can beat Superlek so clearly then he'll be able to beat Haggarty. Was very happy to be wrong tho.

One thing I really liked was the stance switching to avoid the low kicks and scattering in some knees whenever Yoza came in to punch. I thought that Yoza was a bit reluctant to let his hands go and that he really uses his calf kicks as an aggressive boxer would use the jab, and once they stopped landing he just couldn't get close enough, quick enough, to do some proper hitting. Haggarty's moving and boxing looks fantastic though.

Yeah I've seen Karuhat a few times now, iirc it was against Veeraphol, Wangchannoi and Boonlai. Very cool fighter - I really like Wangchannoi too actually. Very good boxer and iirc he beat Samart after Samart went back to Muay Thai. I've seen Veeraphol and Karuhat on Sylvie's Muay Thai Library a few times too.

 

@roughdiamond have you ever seen Jaroensook? I think he's the Rajadamnern champ at bantamweight rn and he's an absolute animal. Brutal in the clinch with very nice knees and elbows. His fights with Kazuki Osaki and Captainteam are great.

 

I haven't mate. Not really up to date on current Thai fighters tbh. I'll check him out.

 

I agree with ya....add in that he is 37 years of age too.....dont see him having much of a future tbh!!

 

I'm not either really, I just come across guys on the One or RWS YouTube's and if I like them I just search for them every now and then.

It is ****ing awesome tho, I've watched a lot more kickboxing and Muay Thai in the last year or so than I have boxing.

 

Rico have been dropped many times, AJ and DD is bad fights for him.