Badr Hari, Rico Verhoeven

Rico “The King of Kickboxing” Verhoeven, 30, of the Netherlands is still the reigning champion of GLORY Kickboxing’s heavyweight division. He successfully defended his title when he had his rematch with Badr “The Golden Boy” Hari, 35, of Morocco at “Glory 74: Arnhem,” also known as “Glory Collision 2″ on December 21, 2019.

With 13 kickboxing bouts on the fight card, GLORY Kickboxing held “Glory Collission 2” at the GelreDome in Arnhem, Netherlands. Atsushi Onari served as the referee of the main event, which was the rematch between Verhoeven and Hari.

With right hand, Hari dropped Verhoeven in the first round, which marks the first time the latter was dropped in the GLORY Kickboxing ring. The Moroccan challenger knocked down the Dutch defending champion again in the third round with left head kick.

Verhoeven survived both knockdowns. With left spinning back kick, he knocked down Hari, who was not able to get up due to leg injury.

While on the canvas, Hari sobbed while in pain. Later on, the medical team took him out of the ring through a stretcher.

In the end, Onari raised the hand of Verhoeven, who was declared the winner via technical knockout. It marked the ninth time the Dutch kickboxer successfully defended his title as the Glory Heavyweight Champion.

Winning at “Glory Collision 2” improved the professional kickboxing record of Verhoeven to 56 wins and 10 losses. Among his 56 wins, 17 were via knockout or technical knockout.

On the other hand, Hari now has 106 wins and 14 losses. Among this 106 wins, 92 were via knockout of technical knockout.

Born in Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands, Verhoeven has been competing professionally as a kickboxer since 2005. He joined GLORY Kickboxing in 2012.

On June 21, 2014, Verhoeven won the Glory Heavyweight Championship by defeating Daniel “The Savage Samurai” Ghiță, 38, of Romania at “Glory 17: Los Angeles” in Inglewood, California, United States. Before facing Hari for the second time, the Dutch champion successfully defended his title from Errol “The Bonecrusher” Zimmerman, 33, of Curacao; Benjamin “Mister Gentleman” Adegbuyi, 34, of Romania; Mladen “The Scorpion Sting” Brestovac, 36, of Croatia; Anderson “Braddock” Silva, 33, of Brazil; Jamal Ben “Goliath” Saddik, 29, of Morocco and Carlos Augusto “Guto Inocente” Inocente Filho, 33, of Brazil.

Both Adegbuyi and Brestovac unsuccessfully challenged Verhoeven twice. On December 10, 2016, the Dutch kickboxer defeated Hari via technical knockout due to arm injury in a non-title heavyweight bout at “Glory 36: Oberhausen” at the König Pilsener Arena in Oberhausen, Germany.