Rico Verhoeven has peeled back the curtain on his recent free agency – including his negotiations with the UFC.
Ultimately, Verhoeven elected to take a major WBC heavyweight title boxing match vs. Oleksandr Usyk. But as it was revealed during Hunter Campbell’s testimony in the UFC antitrust lawsuit, the promotion made a run at Verhoeven.
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So… how did the offer stack up? Verhoeven indicated that it was perhaps better than some would think, just not to the level of what the boxing world had to offer.
“It was decent. It was a decent offer,” Verhoeven said Tuesday on “The Ariel Helwani Show“. “But like I said, you just put the two next to each other. A big crossover fight vs. Anthony Joshua with also a serious paycheck, as well – or a crossover to the UFC, which is different. Derrick Lewis is an amazing fighter. He’s a good name within the UFC but he doesn’t get that stature that I’m looking for. I don’t know. It was a good ‘coming-in’ fight for transitioning to the UFC. But I was like, ‘Nah, let’s go for the Anthony Joshua fight.’ So that’s what happened.”
Verhoeven did not say exactly what the UFC offered him, but said it was in the relative ballpark to what he was making in GLORY kickboxing, the promotion in which he carved himself out as a star.
“One-hundred percent,” Verhoeven said. “… It was getting close. … It was a decent offer. I see so much stuff on the internet. That is definitely not true. Like, oh, the UFC just came in and said, ‘Rico is a no-name, so we’ll just give him a bullsh*t offer.’ They definitely did not do that. They treated me with a lot of respect and gave me a really decent offer, especially in terms of what they offer other fighters. I really felt that. But within the sport of martial arts in general and what I made within GLORY, I’m just like, ‘It doesn’t make too much sense for me.'”
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Verhoeven, 36, reenters the boxing world with a 1-0 professional record as he takes on Usyk, the 24-0 undisputed heavyweight boxing champion. The bout takes place May 23 at the Pyramids in Giza, Egypt. Verhoeven is who many believe to be the greatest heavyweight kickboxer in modern history. Verhoeven exited kickboxing with a 66-10 record.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Rico Verhoeven reveals how UFC offer stacked up to others
