Will Rico Verhoeven become the most successful kickboxer-turned-boxer this weekend if he beats Oleksandr Usyk in Egypt?
Known as ‘the King of Kickboxing’, Verhoeven has chosen perhaps the single toughest route into boxing. In his second pro bout – the first being a forgettable stoppage against Janos Finfera in 2014 – he will take on unified heavyweight champion and pound-for-pound king Usyk. A win would see the Dutchman crowned WBC heavyweight champion, though the IBF and WBA have taken different stances on the fight.
Not only would a victory rank among the biggest upsets in heavyweight history, despite Verhoeven’s vast fighting experience, but the 37-year-old would complete perhaps the most significant transition from one combat sport to another.
However, the switch is not an uncommon one – here are five big names to make it work.
Vitali Klitschko
Long before he was a heavyweight world champion with 12 successful title defences, Klitschko competed in both boxing and kickboxing simultaneously as an amateur. Though he would ultimately settle on – and dominate – heavyweight boxing, his talent in kickboxing led him to two amateur world titles and four in professional tournaments. The reign he and his brother Wladimir enjoyed at heavyweight between 2004 and 2015 would leave few doubting that he could have done the same in kickboxing had he chosen that path.
Troy Dorsey
Troy Dorsey remains one of the most successful examples of a kickboxer transitioning into professional boxing. After winning world titles in kickboxing during the 1980s, the Texas fighter switched focus to boxing and captured the IBF featherweight world title in 1991 by defeating Alfred Rangel. Though he lost the belt in his first defence to Manuel Medina, Dorsey’s achievements across both sports make him one of the few fighters to reach a genuine championship level in kickboxing and boxing alike.
Tenshin Nasukawa
Perhaps the most recent high-level example, Verhoeven aside, is Nasukawa, who was regarded as the best pound-for-pound kickboxer before retiring in 2022. He made his pro boxing debut in 2023 and moved seven fights undefeated before losing to Takuma Inoue in November last year for the vacant WBC bantamweight belt. A win over Juan Francisco Estrada last month has put him straight back into title contention, now in line for a rematch with Inoue, who retained the belt by beating Kazuto Ioka earlier this month.
Marco Huck
Marco Huck was a successful amateur kickboxer before switching his focus fully to boxing, winning regional titles in Germany as a teenager and consecutive gold medals at the European championships in 2002 and 2003. It was during that time that he developed the aggressive pressure style that later defined his professional career and made him one of the standout cruiserweights of his era. His 13 successful WBO world title defences between 2009 and 2015 make him the division’s joint longest-reigning champion alongside Britain’s Johnny Nelson. Interestingly, the German’s boxing career eventually crossed paths with Usyk’s in 2017, when the Ukrainian stopped him in the tenth round of their World Boxing Super Series clash on the road to undisputed status.
Dillian Whyte
‘The Bodysnatcher’ was a two-time British and one-time European kickboxing champion before having one fight in MMA and ultimately landing on boxing, with his first amateur win coming against Anthony Joshua. Whyte would lose in his professional rematch with ‘AJ’, but later picked up the British title before climbing the world rankings, beating the likes of Joseph Parker and Derek Chisora. Whyte twice faced Alexandr Povetkin and has called out Jarrell Miller, both of whom also previously competed in kickboxing. The Brit’s sole world title challenge was a sixth-round TKO loss to Tyson Fury, and he has most recently been stopped inside one round against rising star Moses Itauma.
The harsh reality for Verhoeven is that every name above built themselves up gradually in boxing, rather than jumping straight in against one of the sport’s pound-for-pound greats. His fight against Usyk tops a card at the Pyramids of Giza this weekend.
