Rico Verhoeven laughs off Conor McGregor’s criticism aimed at Tom Aspinall from sparring footage posted online

Rico Verhoeven couldn’t help but laugh after seeing Conor McGregor take shots at Tom Aspinall for some sparring footage posted on social media.

The GLORY heavyweight champion, who returns to action on Saturday at GLORY Collision 7 from the Netherlands, has called Aspinall a teammate for the past few years as they’ve worked to make each other better through numerous sparring and training sessions. As Aspinall continues to lobby for a fight against Jon Jones in the UFC, he posted a brief clip working with Verhoeven — who was mimicking Jones at the time — and that got a reaction out of McGregor.

“That footage of him looking woeful vs. Rico Verhoeven is good footage to watch for Jon,” McGregor wrote in a now deleted tweet. “I’ve warmed to this matchup. I think it should happen.”

In response, Verhoeven smiled and chuckled at McGregor’s comments while scoffing at the suggestion that the footage posted was anything close to the actual work he’s doing with Aspinall in the gym.

“Of course [I saw that]. That’s so much fun. I love it,” Verhoeven told MMA Fighting. “That’s why I love social media. I love the internet. I love the opinions. It’s like we were just having fun! Tom was just keeping himself warm and I was playing Jon Jones for him. To go from orthodox to southpaw and just moving around. We were just having fun with it.

“Would we definitely seriously be sparring and then after that, posting it? Come on guys be realistic and be serious.”

Verhoeven says he’s never really posted any sparring footage online and he has no plans to start that practice now, which is why McGregor’s comment was that much funnier to him.

Playing around in the gym and then posting a video online is one thing but Verhoeven says if McGregor is judging Aspinall from that brief clip, then he’s got another thing coming once he actually witnesses what the current UFC interim heavyweight champion is capable of doing.

“You haven’t seen stuff like that leak or come out from us in a decade,” Verhoeven said. “So let’s say that after so many years, something comes out? And Tom puts it out on his own channel? Come on. It’s just common sense but for some people they love to talk about it.

“Like Tom said, there is no footage to study from him or not enough. He gets the guys out really fast. Everything we put out, we put out for a reason.”

Verhoeven has frequently praised Aspinall whenever he’s talking about working together and his admiration for the British born heavyweight has only increased recently.

Even as he gets ready for his rematch against Levi Rigters this weekend, Verhoeven says Aspinall played a part in his preparation and he always plans on paying back that favor whenever he’s needed.

“We’ve been working so much with Tom and he’s a student of the game,” Verhoeven said. “He’s a student of the game, it’s crazy. He’s been coming over a few times a year and yeah, we’ve really been putting in the work. Every time, we give him homework, he comes back and masters it. I love it.

“He helped me through this camp as well. So much love and respect to him. They don’t come much better than Tom Aspinall, believe me.”

As arguably the top striker on the planet after staying undefeated in kickboxing for nearly the past decade, Verhoeven is uniquely qualified to give his insight on Aspinall’s ability on the feet but he’s also seen plenty of ground work from him as well.

Verhoeven may not be signing up to try MMA any time soon but he definitely knows Aspinall is somebody he would avoid at all costs.

“This guy’s a different type of monster, especially if you should fight him in MMA,” Verhoeven said. “He’s a great standup fighter. He’s a good kickboxer but he’s also an amazing wrestler. Like I’m not wrestling with this dude. He’ll probably like basketball slam dunk me somewhere. I’ll just keep it to the standup.

“But as much as I can give to him and try to make him better in his standup game, I love it. He’s a good friend and the nicest guy ever.”