Derrick Lewis recently stated that he was offered a fight against former Glory Heavyweight Champion Rico Verhoeven at UFC 324.
However, Lewis is now set to fight rising heavyweight prospect Waldo Cortes-Acosta at UFC 324. ‘The Black Beast’ has scored 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 the previous fight of ‘Salsa Boy’, which took place on short notice against Shamil Gaziev, the first knocked out Gaziev in just 82 seconds. In 2025, the 34-year-old competed five times and won four.
Lewis recently claimed that he was offered to fight Rico Verhoeven at UFC 324 instead of Cortes-Acosta, but the Dutch kickboxer turned down the opportunity. On The Beast and the Cowboy PodcastLewis said:
“The [UFC said] ‘we have something big for you’… It had to be a guy from Glory, Rico [Verhoeven]. Then he stopped the fight.”
Check out Derrick Lewis’ comments below:
Verhoeven relinquished his Glory heavyweight title earlier this year after 12 years as champion. Notably, “Prince of Kickboxing,” who is friends with UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall, has a pro kickboxing record of 49-8, according to Tapology.
Anthony Joshua could fight Rico Verhoeven next
After scoring a Round 6 TKO win against Jake Paul last weekend, Anthony Joshua called out Tyson Fury. However, before the possible Fury fight, he could fight Rico Verhoeven in February. Matchroom CEO Eddie Hearn recently said at a press conference in Miami:
“We talked about a possible fight with Turki Alalshikh [for February]. A few opponents mentioned. The biggest challenge now is that it takes eight weeks [from] this evening. He had a very tough camp, eight or nine weeks, with a new team, which helped him work well.”
So we’ll sit down with that team and talk about when he’ll be ready to return. In an ideal world, that would be the moment. We’ll see when he’s ready. Rico, or whoever it is, we haven’t finalized that yet. But the date is actually what we’re going to be working on for the next four, five, six days. Because we’re not going to rush him back if he’s not quite ready yet. But it won’t last long. The plan is to fight in the spring, and of course against Tyson Fury.” [h/t: ringmagazine]
Hearn also confirmed the same during his appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show.
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