Ricardo Verhoeven (born 10 April 1989) is a Dutch professional kickboxer who currently competes in the heavyweight division of GLORY, where he is the reigning Glory Heavyweight Champion. A professional since 2004, he also competed in the K-1, It's Showtime and SUPERKOMBAT promotions. He is currently ranked the number one heavyweight in the world by Combat Press. Verhoeven has been continually ranked as the number one heavyweight kickboxer in the world by Combat Press since September 2014, when the rankings were first established. Early life Rico Verhoeven was born in Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands. He began learning martial arts at age five, starting with Kyokushin. He was trained by his father, a karate black belt. After transitioning into kickboxing, Verhoeven began training at the age of seven and started competing against adults when he was only 16 years old, due to his large size. He has trained mainly in Zevenbergen under Dennis Krauweel at Superpro Sportcenter, with fellow kickboxers Benjamin Adegbuyi, Albert Kraus and Alviar Lima. Professional kickboxing career Glory After competing in K-1, It's Showtime and SUPERKOMBAT, Verhoeven signed with Glory World Series. He was drawn against Russian mixed martial artist Sergei Kharitonov at the opening round of the sixteen-man 2012 Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam held at Glory 4: Tokyo - 2012 Heavyweight Grand Slam in Saitama, Japan on 31 December 2012. As he was leading the judges' scorecards after the first two, two-minute rounds, he advanced to the quarter-finals where he lost out to the eventual tournament winner Semmy Schilt by the same margin. He defeated Jhonata Diniz via unanimous decision at Glory 7: Milan in Milan, Italy on 20 April 2013. He rematched Errol Zimmerman at Glory 9: New York - 2013 95kg Slam in New York City on 22 June 2013. Despite being deducted a point for rabbit punching in round one, he outworked and outstruck Zimmerman for three rounds and won by unanimous decision. Ghiță rivalry He caused a major upset to win the Glory 11: Chicago - Heavyweight World Championship Tournament in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States in October 2013. After taking a majority decision over Gökhan Saki in the semi-finals, and scoring a controversial knockdown in round one, he beat Daniel Ghiță by unanimous decision in the final. Rico further established himself by defeating kickboxing legend Peter Aerts by split decision in the tightly contested main event of Glory 13: Tokyo - Welterweight