Rico Verhoeven has spent years perfecting the formula that kept him at the top of kickboxing, but preparing for a fight with Oleksandr Usyk has forced him into unfamiliar territory.
The heavyweight icon admitted that stepping outside the world he has dominated for so long demanded a completely different mindset — and a level of intensity he does not normally associate with his regular training camps.
Speaking about the challenge, Verhoeven explained that his team had already mastered the balance needed to maintain his success in kickboxing, but boxing preparation pushed him into a new environment entirely.
“Starting this whole adventure, it’s like we got to take a different approach,” Verhoeven said in an interview with DAZN Boxing.
The Dutch superstar revealed that years of experience had allowed his camp to identify exactly what works for him inside the kickboxing world.
“We’ve found our sweet spot within kickboxing, ‘like hey if we use this approach, this works’,” Verhoeven said.
That confidence came from repetition and consistency at the elite level, where Verhoeven has built a reputation as one of the most dominant heavyweight fighters in combat sports history.
“We know how to get fit. We know how to keep everything, the knife sharpened that works to stay the best. And that’s what we did,” he said.
But transitioning toward boxing — especially with the possibility of facing someone as technically gifted as Usyk — meant abandoning familiar routines and rebuilding from scratch.
“But this, yeah, was again something different. This whole approach was different.”
Verhoeven admitted there was a noticeable shift in the demands of camp compared to what he experiences preparing for kickboxing bouts.
He said: “I don’t know if it was more serious; I think it needed to be more intense to get everything out of me.”
The comments offer a glimpse into the physical and mental adjustments required when crossing between combat sports at the highest level. While Verhoeven has long been recognised for his conditioning and professionalism, the preparation for boxing appears to have tested him in ways even he did not fully expect.
Training for kickboxing and training for elite-level boxing may appear similar from the outside, but the details are vastly different. Footwork, pacing, rhythm, defensive reactions, punch volume, and endurance all place different stresses on the body. For an athlete who has already established a championship system over many years, altering that structure can be one of the toughest challenges of all.
Verhoeven’s remarks also highlight the respect he has for Usyk and the level required to compete against a fighter of that calibre. Rather than relying on the methods that made him successful in kickboxing, he acknowledged the need for evolution and adaptation.
That willingness to embrace discomfort has been a recurring theme throughout Verhoeven’s career. Staying at the top for so long often requires fighters to resist complacency, and the heavyweight champion made it clear that this venture demanded a fresh mentality from day one.
Instead of simply sharpening existing tools, Verhoeven suggested the process involved drawing out something deeper physically and mentally.
Featured image credit: DAZN Boxing / YouTube (screenshot / Rico Verhoeven / Instagram
