Badr Hari K1 Champion

Biography and career
Badr Hari began practicing kickboxing at the age of seven, under the guidance of former World Champion Mousid Akamrane. As a teenager he trained under Mohammed Ait Hassou at the Sitan Gym. When the Sitan Gym moved to Rotterdam, Badr joined the famous Chakuriki Gym ran by Thom Harinck. Under Harinck, Hari developed into one of the greatest kickboxing talents of the Netherlands.

Early career
Under Harnick's coaching, Hari suffered few losses. In 2003 he replaced Melvin Manhoef with only a few days notice, to fight Alexey Ignashov. Hari, outweighed by more than 18 kg, lost the fight by knockout, but gained a lot of respect for stepping up to such an opponent under those circumstances.

In January 2005, Hari left Chakuriki and joined Simon Rutz's It's Showtime team. After a few months' training at Mejiro Gym he returned to Harinck's, but left again a couple of weeks later. Since then Badr Hari has been coached by Mike Passenier, who also trains Joerie Mes, Bjorn Bregy and Melvin Manhoef.

Road to K-1
Hari's road to fame began with a pair of matches against Stefan Leko in 2005. It took place at the It's Showtime 8 event, on June 12, 2005. Hari, who was generally known for his big mouth and slow ring entrance started some trash talk between them before the fight and abused Leko on the night which took a while to settle down. The ring entrance took longer then the actual fight, where Hari was knocked out by Leko's 'trademark' spinning back kick. Leko looked to be spitting on Hari while he was down.

On November 19, 2005, Hari got his chance for revenge. He entered the K-1 World Grand Prix 2005 as a reserve fighter against Stefan Leko. Hari didn't seem to have lost his confidence and knocked Leko out by a spinning back high kick to the jaw. After all the bad blood between both fighters, Hari helped his opponent up and escorted the dazed German to the corner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badr_Hari

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Official website = http://www.badrhari.com/