Anthony Joshua has been told that Rico Verhoeven, a fearsome kickboxing champion who has boxed only once, is being touted as a possible next opponent.
After knocking out Jake Paul, Joshua’s priority is to agree a long-awaited fight against Tyson Fury in 2026.
But both Joshua and Fury could have respective warm-up fights before their planned collision, and Verhoeven has unexpectedly entered the mix.
Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, suggested Verhoeven as a possible opponent for Joshua, according to Eddie Hearn.
Joshua’s promoter Hearn told Ring Magazine when asked about Verhoeven: “He’s someone that has been mentioned by His Excellency. It’s a little bit out there…
“He is a massive star in the world of kickboxing.
“We have just done, although a professional boxer, someone who has come from the YouTube world.”
Anthony Joshua could fight somebody else before meeting Tyson Fury. Getty
Hearn continued: “We have got deep conversations with Turki Alalshikh to fight in February, that could turn into March.
“America, the market opens right up. We have got to plan carefully now.
“The focus is to fight Tyson Fury. The focus is trying to regain the world heavyweight championship.
“We will speak to His Excellency this week and start securing some of those plans.”
Hearn added: “We understand that we’re in the last chapter of his career and we want to make sure that the people who have supported us, like Turki Alalshikh, get first dibs.
“Ultimately Turki Alalshikh wants to make the Fury fight, we could go straight into that fight.”
Verhoeven’s name was surprisingly put to Joshua and Hearn at the postfights new conference after Paul was knocked out.
“We have been talking about a possible fight, a couple of opponents have been mentioned,” Hearn said at the time.
“We will sit down with [Joshua’s new training team] to work out when he will be ready to return.
“Rico, or whoever it is, we haven’t finalised that yet. The date is what we will work on.”
Who is Rico Verhoeven?
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Verhoeven is a Dutchman who has dominated kickboxing’s heavyweight division for 12 years.
He won the GLORY title, the top prize in his sport, in 2013 and has successfully defended it 13 times.
Verhoeven has 66 wins, with 21 KOs, and 10 losses although he hasn’t been beaten for a decade.
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Verhoeven has trained with Peter Fury, the uncle of Tyson Fury, and sparred Britain’s UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall.
He has also featured in the “Black Lotus” movie and the second Den of Thieves movie. He is set to star alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in “Road House 2.”
Now aged 36, Verhoeven surprisingly vacated his kickboxing title in November but stopped short of retiring, leaving question marks about his next move.
“It’s not a goodbye, it’s an ‘until we meet again,'” he cryptically announced without naming his next challenge.
Verhoeven has fought once each in boxing and MMA, winning both fights in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
He has recently been accused of turning down an MMA fight at UFC 324 in January against Derrick Lewis. UFC veteran Lewis made the accusation on “The Beast & The Cowboy” podcast, although it is unconfirmed.
