Rico Verhoeven on Fighting Badr Hari | Joe Rogan

Yeah, so people who don't know the sport, Badahari is one of the biggest names in the sport like forever. He's a guy who he's stopped Alistair over him. He's fought in K1. He fought everybody, Sammy Sheehan, P.R.T. He's a fucking wild man too. But he hasn't fought in high level competition for a long time. And then he fought you. Yeah. Yeah, so the thing was, everybody was... I was beating everybody. I was champion and I was beating everybody. People said, yeah, Rico's good. He's the champion, but he hasn't fought badr. I was like, hey, if he wants... So our national television said, hey, if he wants to fight, let's go. But he had been dealing with a bunch of legal troubles. Yeah, he had a lot of problems. He broke someone's leg in a club. Yeah, a lot. A lot of shit. Crazy shit. There's a video of him slapping some guy's face in a hotel. Imagine that guy slapping your face for your support. You work him behind the counter. Bonner comes in like, yikes. Yikes, yeah. Do whatever you want. Here, take the keys, sir. Which room would you like? The hotel is yours. So yeah, he had a bunch of problems. But then eventually the fight happened because that's the fight that people wanted to see. But for me, it was just like another fight. Then the fight ended that way. Yeah, that was too bad. But now we can do it again. Yeah. So the fight was quite a while ago. How long ago was that? 2016. Yeah, why did it take so long for the rematch? Yeah, there was a bunch of stuff going on in between. And last year he fought Hesty Gurgis, also a good kickbox. I believe he's now doing MMA in Bellator. And he fought Hesty before, right? Yeah, he fought Hesty before, but got disqualified. Oh, that's right. He stomped him on the ground. Yeah, stomped him, yeah. But after that fight- He's so crazy. Yeah, he's got- He's such a wild dude. Yeah. And then after that fight, they both got caught with using whatever. Oh, steroids. Yeah. Oh. So they both got suspended. And I believe Hesty wasn't suspended. I don't know. But he got suspended till December this year. So that's why. How did the fight go when you fought last year with Hesty? He won. It wasn't easy, but he won. Was it a decision? Or was it a- It was a decision, yeah. Yeah, so for him, that was the first fight since your fight with him in 2016? Is that it? Yeah. Because he's had a bunch of problems. He's been so on and off, yeah. Yeah. And now he's not training at Mike's gym anymore as well, right? No, no, no, no. Do you know who he's training with? I don't know his name. I know the guy, but I don't know who he's training with. Well, he looks good on Instagram. For sure. Looks very fit. A lot of people look good. Jack. A lot of people look good on Instagram. You know that. You see him in real life, it looked totally different. Well, I'm sure he looks the same. But what's interesting is when you're in high-level competition, like he was, of course, in the days when he fought Alistair, before Alistair made the transition full-time to MMA, before he came to strike force and all that stuff, that's a long time ago. It's probably hard to get back and to jump straight into top-level competition, like Headsy, or especially like fighting you as the champion. That's a big leap, right? Yeah. But that's the thing now. So he fought last year, March, and I fought last year, September. So because I was in negotiations, and still am in negotiations with Glory for a new contract. So it's both been a while for us. But I've been, before that, I was like in a crazy act of flow. Yeah, you definitely have much more momentum. And just there's a thing about fighting, too, when guys take a long time off, it's almost like they lose the feel for it. Yeah. They lose. You know how, obviously, they know how to kick. They know how to punch. They know what to do. They're in shape. Yeah. But there's a feel that they have for the ring, for them. Exactly. Exactly. This is where people don't know. I said, hey, you step in the ring. And that's what you do. That's what you were born to do. That's true. But you need that tension. You need that vibe of walking towards the ring, stepping into the ring. All those people looking at you at that moment, that's a certain type of feeling that you get. You got to be comfortable with it. Yeah. And that's exactly what it is. You got to feel comfortable. And the only way you can be comfortable and stay comfortable is being active. Yes. Being active is very, it's just so critical for a fighter. When a guy takes a year off or two years off or three, it's like, whoosh, the more the time is, the more it becomes problematic. Yeah. And the older you get, that's the. How old is Botter now? 35, I think. So yeah. Does Glory drug test? Yeah. They do? That's how they got caught. Was it him or was it an athletic commission? I mean, was it Glory or was it? No, it's not Glory. It's a local, local Dutch athletic commission. And so they're going to drug test for this fight as well. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So I got tested every time. Is it like WADA testing, like the same standards? Like world anti-doping agency? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So they wake you up like 7 o'clock in the morning, hey, Rico. Oh, no, no, no, no. That's not the testing. They just test at the events. Oh. I would even rather have that. Yeah. You can just wake up and random come test, but that's not what they do. But they test really strict when you're there. Yeah, that's a little bit easier to pass, though. That's true. No, that's a lot easier to pass, I should say. I have no clue. I don't know what to do or what ways there are to, because I'm not on it. I don't want to stay busy. I don't want to think about it. But whatever, I just jump in there and just do what I got to do. But that's why I told Glory now, again, after this whole issue, because a lot of people were caught last year, and they didn't expect that. I was like, hey, we got to keep doing this, because this is the way we make the sport clean. Yes. And I think that's what we deserve, because we are a good sport. We are all athletes. But I want to be safe in the ring. And what do you mean we're safe? You're going into a fight, I understand. Somebody that uses whatever can maybe just punch a little bit harder in the beginning of the fight or whatever. A little more endurance. Exactly. Hit you with some punches they wouldn't be able to hit you with, they're not on some shit. Exactly. So that's what I mean with telling Glory, I want to be safe when I'm in the ring. Well, for sure. I mean, if one person's on it and one person's not, that's a giant advantage. Anybody who says it's not, it's just lying to themselves. Yeah. Yeah. In the end, I just go in there and I'm not even thinking about it. Well, it is the fight to make in kickboxing too. And if there's a fight that I can tell people, hey, you got to watch, you really want to know what kickboxing is all about, watch this fight. But that is the fight. Because Bader is such a wild man, he's such a knockout artist, and you obviously one of the most successful heavyweights ever. I mean, your kickboxing record in Glory, I mean, just the highlight reel is amazing. You've had so many great fights over there too. Yeah. I've been doing so good. I really enjoy myself. And that's what I said. I want to bring kickboxing to a new level. Especially when you go now in Holland. Normally, in Holland, it was like soccer or whatever, cycling or ice skating. That's where parents would bring their kids to and do that, do kickboxing. And now, they're like, hey, kickboxing, this is cool. When did that change? I think like two, three years ago. What made it change? I think because of the Bader fight, so we were getting more airtime. And after the Bader fight, and everything that happened around him, and it was surrounding him, like the things you said would happen outside in the club, and this and that, he was like the national asshole. Right. And I was like the national good guy. And that was like the perfect clash. And then, of course, yeah, I beat him. So everybody was like, oh shit, he's our hero. Right. So that's how everything a little bit exploded. But again, for you, that's unsatisfying the way it happened, though, that he gets his arm injured. Yeah. In whatever way, reason, or whatever he thinks happened. But like, because you're suspicious about it. I'm suspicious about it. So because he's looking at one arm, then looking at the other arm, and it's a vague thing for me. But that's what I have with this whole thing that he tries to create. It's like when he's getting announced and everything, he's like, yeah, Bader, hurry, 110 something fights, and 90 knockouts. But I'm obsessed with what I'm doing. When I fight, and when I have an opponent that I'm fighting, I'm looking for everything. I want to know everything about you. And everything these days, you can find on the internet. So when I'm looking on the internet, and for example, you look at Wikipedia, and you're looking at all the fights from back in the days, K1 days, and even before that, you maybe get to 60, 70 fights. So where are the other fights? Does that mean like when you were younger in the youth period, you did like 40 something fights, did you knock everybody out? I don't know. My trainer's been there for years, even before that. And he doesn't know about it. So that's strange, because everything is documented on the internet. Everything you can find on the internet. So you think his record's inflated? I think so. He's got some crazy knockouts, though. He got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the Stefan Lekko, the wheel kick. Yeah, the wheel kick's crazy. But that's what I said. He's got that. He's got amazing records. But I think it's not as crazy as they make it to be, which is crazy, because the reality is pretty crazy. I mean, you don't need to hype it up any more than it really is, right? No, but it's been there for years. Like, hey, you did 100 something fights, so many knockouts. But when I look at it, I can't find it. But maybe it's there. Maybe it's there. Maybe it's from years ago, whatever. I don't know. But that's all that I'm looking at. You're suspicious. I'm suspicious about it, because when I look at Wikipedia and I'm looking at it, it starts from when he was around 16 till now. It's like 60, 70 fights. It's funny when you look at him in the early days, too. He was so skinny. Yeah. Like, even when he fought Stefan Lekko. And then now he's just fucking jacked. But he put so much time into strength and conditioning workouts. You could see he's always doing some crazy strength routine. Yeah.