Rico Verhoeven trains to absorb Usyk's power on May 23

Rico Verhoeven is putting his body through hell to prepare for the biggest fight of his life. The former kickboxing champion shared footage of brutal neck training designed to help him survive the punching power of undefeated boxing star Oleksandr Usyk. "Let it burn," he says in the video, teeth clenched under heavy resistance. Critics have already written him off. But Verhoeven is building himself into something harder to break, one grinding rep at a time.

Why a kickboxer is torturing his neck for a boxing match

Rico Verhoeven knows what a punch from Oleksandr Usyk can do. He has watched the Ukrainian dismantle heavyweights with precision and timing that leave almost no room for error. So rather than pretend he can avoid every shot, the Dutchman is training his body to take them.

In a video posted to Instagram, Verhoeven works through a series of neck exercises using heavy resistance bands. His face tightens. The veins in his neck push against his skin. He doesn't stop. "Let it burn," he mutters, and he means it.

The logic behind this kind of work is straightforward. When a fist connects with your jaw, your head snaps sideways. The brain shifts inside the skull, and that is what causes knockouts. A thicker, stronger neck slows that rotation down. It won't make you invincible, but it can buy you a fraction of a second, and in boxing, fractions decide everything.

From kickboxing throne to boxing underdog

Verhoeven ruled GLORY kickboxing for nearly a decade. He defended his heavyweight title more times than anyone thought possible. But walking away from that sport and stepping into professional boxing against an undisputed champion is a different kind of challenge altogether.

Usyk has beaten Tyson Fury twice. He holds every major belt at heavyweight. He moves like a cruiserweight and thinks three punches ahead of his opponents. Almost nobody in the boxing world gives Verhoeven a realistic shot at winning on May 23.

That skepticism follows him everywhere. A prominent boxing figure recently predicted an early finish in Usyk's favor. Verhoeven has heard all of it. He just keeps training.

Building durability, not just strength

What stands out about Verhoeven's preparation is the focus on survival. He is not chasing knockout power or flashy combinations. He is engineering his body to last twelve rounds against someone who breaks fighters down systematically.

Neck training is only part of that picture. Fighters at this level condition their entire frame to absorb punishment without losing coordination. The goal is to stay sharp after eating a shot that would drop a less prepared athlete.

Verhoeven's kickboxing career taught him how to take punishment and keep marching forward. He absorbed clean shots from monsters like Jamal Ben Saddik and Badr Hari without folding. That durability is real, though whether it translates against boxing-level accuracy remains the open question.

Every detail matters against Usyk

Against most opponents, physical toughness alone can carry you through rough patches. Against Usyk, the margins shrink to almost nothing. The Ukrainian reads patterns, adjusts between rounds, and punishes repetition with surgical counters.

Verhoeven will need more than a strong neck on fight night. He will need timing, distance control, and the ability to make Usyk uncomfortable at least some of the time. But conditioning his body to handle damage gives him a baseline, a floor below which he refuses to fall.

Whether that floor is high enough remains to be seen. For now, he keeps grinding, keeps burning, and keeps ignoring every voice telling him he does not belong in that ring.