Derrick Lewis Reveals He Was Offered Fight Against Rico Verhoeven at UFC 324
Derrick Lewis recently stated that he was offered a fight against former Glory Heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven at UFC 324.
Lewis is, however, now slated to fight surging heavyweight contender Waldo Cortes-Acosta at UFC 324. ‘The Black Beast’ has secured stoppage victories in his previous two outings. On the other hand, his next opponent, Cortes-Acosta, has also secured knockouts in his last two fights. In ‘Salsa Boy’s’ previous bout, which was on short notice against Shamil Gaziev, the former knocked out Gaziev in just 82 seconds. In 2025, the 34-year-old competed five times and won four.
Lewis recently alleged that, instead of Cortes-Acosta, he was offered to fight Rico Verhoeven at UFC 324, but the Dutch kickboxer turned down the opportunity. On The Beast & The Cowboy Podcast, Lewis said:
“The [UFC said] ‘we got something big for you’… It was supposed to be some dude from Glory, Rico [Verhoeven]. Then he turned the fight down.”
Check out Derrick Lewis’ comments below:
Verhoeven vacated his Glory heavyweight title earlier this year, after reigning as champion for 12 years. Notably, ‘Prince of Kickboxing,’ who is friends with UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall, has a pro-kickboxing record of 49-8 as per Tapology.
Anthony Joshua could fight Rico Verhoeven next
After securing a Round 6 TKO victory against Jake Paul this past weekend, Anthony Joshua called out Tyson Fury. However, before the potential Fury fight, he could be fighting Rico Verhoeven in February. About that, Matchroom CEO Eddie Hearn recently said at a press conference in Miami:
“We’ve been talking about a possible fight with Turki Alalshikh [for February]. A couple of opponents mentioned. The biggest challenge now is that it’s eight weeks [from] tonight. He had a very tough camp, eight or nine weeks, with a new team, who gave him a good working over.”
So, we will sit down with that team and talk about when he will be ready to return. In an ideal world, that would be the time. We’re going to see when he’s ready. Rico, or whoever it is, we haven’t finalized that yet. But the date is really what we are going to work on over the next four, five, six days. Because we’re not going to rush him back if he’s not quite ready. But it won’t be long. The plan is to fight in the spring, and then obviously fight Tyson Fury.” [h/t: ringmagazine]
Hearn also confirmed the same during his appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show.
