GLORY 26: The Prince becomes The King

Rico Verhoeven (47-10-0), formerly The Prince of the heavyweight division, now The King, will forever look back on Friday, December 4, 2015 as a defining moment in his career. It was the final piece of the puzzle, the night he transitioned from being a force in the heavyweight division to being the force in the heavyweight division.

Last year he won the GLORY World Heavyweight Championship after beating Daniel Ghita in back-to-back fights. He successfully defended it at GLORY 19 (Errol Zimmerman) and then again at GLORY 22 FRANCE when he faced the rising Romanian talent Benjamin Adegbuyi (22-4-0).

That fight, in June, was a five-round affair, the latter three being a technical masterclass from Verhoeven and a shutout on the judges' scorecards. In each of his GLORY fights, Verhoeven has improved on his previous performance. France seemed like it would mark his peak.

Following the loss to Verhoeven in at GLORY 22, Adegbuyi went on to win the four-man Heavyweight Contender Tournament at GLORY 24 DENVER. The tournament win secured him a second title shot. Adegbuyi admitted that he felt the rematch was coming a little soon for his taste, but he also felt that the first fight had been a learning curve which would prepare him well for the second fight. By the time GLORY 26 rolled around he was ready for the rematch and was confident of victory.

In fact, in pre-fight interviews Adegbuyi blamed over-confidence for his loss in their first fight. He felt like he had been too confident in being able to take Verhoeven out, had started too strong and had paid the price by burning out. So this time, he intended to take things slower.

Unfortunately for him, Verheoven is a fighter who can flip the script on a moment's notice. When he felt Adegbuyi starting slow, he immediately clicked up several gears and started piling the pressure on. Everyone who felt they had seen Verhoeven peak in France got proven wrong as he went to yet another level again.

Verhoeven is a superb athlete and takes his profession as a sportsman very seriously. His dedication to his craft is well known as widely respected. The only criticism ever levelled at him was that, for a heavyweight, he had comparatively few knockouts on his record.

The champion himself had addressed the topic previously, saying that he saw no need to make a fight “into a coin-flip”, by which he meant that by going full-throttle in search of a finish, he would needlessly expose himself to risk - the more wild a fighter throws, the more they open themselves up for return fire. Verhoeven's level of technical ability was such that he was handily beating opponents and taking little damage himself, so he saw no need to change the formula.

However, from GLORY 19's fight with Zimmerman onwards, a higher level of aggression has been evident in his approach, and more power in his output. GLORY matchmaker Cor Hemmers believes that Verhoeven has been “growing into himself” and is “now at a level, with his skills and his conditioning, that he feels able to add that final piece of the puzzle and really start throwing full power and bringing the knockouts to his fans.”

That is exactly what Verhoeven did with Adegbuyi in Amsterdam. His boxing was the best it has ever been, a beautiful sharp jab measuring distance and setting up a clockwork 1-2 combination which he scored with again and again. And every time his punches would land, a kick would follow. Kicks also disrupted Adegbuyi's attempts to fire back or to settle himself and get back into the fight.

Verhoeven demonstrated his full repertoire of techniques in the bout, as well as watertight ringcraft and footwork, but it was the fundamental 1-2 combination which won it for him. The jab would land and fix Adegbuyi in place for the follow-on right cross, snapping Adegbuyi's head back. Verhoeven drove Adegbuyi backwards across the ring with it then landed a final right hand which ended the night for Adegbuyi – he dropped, first to the ropes and then to the canvas, clearly with no chance of continuing. The referee gave him a count as a formality but Verhoeven had already walked off to celebrate his win.

“I do a lot of visualization techniques and stuff like that before a fight but I never dared to visualize a first-round knockout like that in front,” Verhoeven said backstage afterwards, smiling as he took it all in. “That wasn't the gameplan initially but as soon as I felt how slow he was starting, I thought, just go for it.”

Verhoeven also spoke with Adegbuyi backstage. The two were recently part of the training camp for boxer Tyson Fury's fight with Wladimir Klitschko and outside the ring they are on friendly terms. “I just told him not to worry, keep his head up. He will be back. He is a great fighter and I am sure we will do this again. But right now this is a dream come true for me,” he said.