{"id":364876,"date":"2025-12-24T00:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T00:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/364876\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T00:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T00:54:07","slug":"ufc-star-accuses-rico-verhoeven-of-turning-down-fight-offer-for-justin-gaethje-vs-paddy-pimblett-undercard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/364876\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC star accuses Rico Verhoeven of turning down fight offer for Justin Gaethje vs. Paddy Pimblett undercard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former GLORY heavyweight kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven allegedly turned down a high-profile fight at UFC 324 next month.<\/p>\n<p>GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven made headlines just weeks ago when he announced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/rico-verhoeven-mma-news\/rico-verhoeven-vacates-glory-heavyweight-title\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he was parting ways with the kickboxing promotion<\/a> to become a free agent. In recent weeks, he\u2019s been linked to potential fights across MMA and boxing, including one high-profile showdown with former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.<\/p>\n<p>Verhoeven is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished combat sports athletes of all time after a legendary run in GLORY. He hasn\u2019t competed since a dominant win over Artem Vakhitov in June at GLORY 100.<\/p>\n<p>Verhoeven has been linked to a potential UFC signing in what would be a much-needed boost to the heavyweight division. According to one of the division\u2019s biggest stars, Verhoeven was offered an opportunity to fight at UFC 324 before allegedly turning it down.<\/p>\n<p>Derrick Lewis: Rico Verhoeven turned down fight against me at UFC 324<\/p>\n<p>During a recent episode of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/tbtcpod\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The Beast &amp; The Cowboy<\/a>, UFC heavyweight contender Derrick Lewis claimed Verhoeven\u2019s UFC debut nearly came against him at UFC 324.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The UFC] was talking about \u2018We got something big for you, don\u2019t worry about, just sit and wait\u2019. But s\u2014 I\u2019ve been waiting!\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[UFC 324] in January. It was supposed to be some dude from Glory, Rico [Verhoeven]. Then he turned the fight down. Supposed to be against him. Tried to get Sergei Pavlovich back, he said no.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lewis was then booked to face Waldo Cortes-Acosta at UFC 324 after Verhoeven\u2019s allegedly declined offer. As of this writing, it\u2019s uncertain if the matchmakers remain interested in signing Verhoeven to a contract.<\/p>\n<p>Verhoeven has fought once in MMA during his fighting career, a first-round TKO win over Viktor Bogutzki at Romanian Xtreme Fighting 20 in October 2015. Meanwhile, Lewis will return to the Octagon next month on a two-fight win streak, including recent wins over Tallison Teixeira and Rodrigo Nascimento.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former GLORY heavyweight kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven allegedly turned down a high-profile fight at UFC 324 next month.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,4227,641,9577,638,15502,155955,82,640,153471],"class_list":{"0":"post-364876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-derrick-lewis","11":"tag-fighting","12":"tag-justin-gaethje","13":"tag-mma","14":"tag-paddy-pimblett","15":"tag-rico-verhoeven","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-ufc","18":"tag-ufc-324"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}