Alistair Overeem offers Rico Verhoeven two-fight deal: MMA and boxing

Farah Hannoun, MMA JunkieThu, May 21, 2026 at 11:00 PM UTC

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Alistair Overeem offers Rico Verhoeven two-fight deal: MMA and boxing

CAIRO – Alistair Overeem would come out of retirement to fight Rico Verhoeven – twice.

Former GLORY Kickboxing champion Verhoeven (1-0) laces up the gloves against undisputed boxing heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (24-0) Saturday in front of the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

Verhoeven initially pondered a move to MMA, and even revealed an offer from the UFC to fight Derrick Lewis. However, the 37-year-old opted to take on Usyk instead, and Overeem thinks he made the right decision.

"I do not think Rico is going to go into MMA," Overeem told MMA Junkie. "I just don't see that happening. I think that gap is just too big. Also, considering that Rico is 37, so in the heydays of his career, and it's difficult for fighters to make the jump into a whole new sport. Wrestling is a whole new sport.

"It's difficult. It's submissions, it's positions, it's angles, it's strength and conditioning, and to learn it, you have to be a little bit young. I think boxing makes very good sense, it's huge, it's made a resurgence so, in my opinion, stick to boxing, don't go to MMA."

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Overeem predicts Verhoeven will get finished by Usyk in the later rounds. When asked where Verhoeven goes from there, Overeem offered to fight him in both MMA and boxing. The pair were scheduled to fight at GLORY: Collision 3 in October 2021, but Overeem withdrew due to injury.

"Francis (Ngannou) would do MMA with him, I would even do MMA with him," Overeem said. "I would come out of retirement and do MMA with him, because MMA takes years to learn and develop. But, the options are narrow for Rico which on one side is good, and one side is not. I would do boxing with him. I would do boxing and an MMA fight with him. Two-fight deal."

Verhoeven is a massive underdog against Usyk, with Caesars having Usyk as high as a -5000 favorite. Overeem was taken aback by how lopsided the odds were, but offered an explanation as to why.

"I think it's because of two factors: No. 1, because Usyk is just amazing," Overeem said. "Let's be honest, he is on another level. He has shown things that I think no boxer has ever shown. And on the other side, Rico is unknown. He's been champion of Glory, and Glory is kind of like a Dutch promotion, even though they had fighters from all over the world, but Glory was relatively unknown in the martial arts world."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Alistair Overeem proposes two-fight deal with Rico Verhoeven

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Source: “AOL Sports”