Badr "The Golden Boy" Hari (Arabic: بدر هاري born December 8, 1984) is a professional Dutch-Moroccan Heavyweight kickboxer and martial artist, fighting out of Mike's Gym in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is a former K-1 Heavyweight champion and K-1 World GP 2008 finalist. He was stripped from his title in the K-1 World GP 2008 finals due to an unsportsmanlike conduct against Remy Bonjasky.[1]
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Badr Hari
بدر هاري
Nickname The Golden Boy, Bad Boy
Nationality Flag of Morocco Morocco
Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands
Date of birth December 8, 1984 (1984-12-08) (age 24)
Place of birth Amsterdam, Netherlands
Height 1.97 m (6 ft 5+1⁄2 in)
Weight 102 kg (224.9 lb; 16.1 st)
Style Muay Thai
Team Mike's Gym (2005-present)
Chakuriki Gym (2000-2005)
Sitan Gym
Trainer Mike Passenier
Thom Harinck
Years active 8 (2000-present)
Kickboxing record
Total 80
Wins 70
By knockout 57
Losses 9
By knockout 5
Draws 1
MMA record
Total 1
Wins 0
Losses 1
By submission 1
Other information
* 1 Biography and career
o 1.1 Early career
o 1.2 Road to K-1
o 1.3 K-1 New Zealand 2006
o 1.4 After the knockout
o 1.5 K-1 Heavyweight champion
o 1.6 2008
* 2 Titles
* 3 Kickboxing Record
* 4 See also
* 5 External links
* 6 References
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 Joeri Mes, Bjorn Bregy and Melvin Manhoef.
[edit] 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.
[edit] K-1 New Zealand 2006
In 2006 Badr Hari was scheduled to participate in the K-1 World GP 2006 in Holland on May 13, 2006, but fought in the K-1 World GP 2006 in New Zealand instead as a last minute replacement. His opponent in the first round was Australian Peter "The Chief" Graham. Hari once again showed his bad boy reputation by abusing Graham and starting a street fight at the press confereance. The next day Graham answered this lack of respect with a spectacular knockout. In the last seconds of the final round, Graham caught Hari with his trademark "Rolling Thunder". The heel hit Hari hard on the head and knocked him out cold. Graham's kick broke Hari's jaw in multiple places and sidelined Hari for almost a year. [2]
[edit] After the knockout
Hari returned to the ring at the K-1 World GP 2006 Final Elimination in Osaka, Japan against Ruslan Karaev. Karaev hurt Badr with a straight left that left Hari slouching over in the corner, then Karaev kicked him in the face when Badr looked as though he was already lying on the canvas. Hari was counted out by the referee but immediately he and his corner protested, saying the kick was a foul. When the referee did not respond, Hari left in anger and trashed his changing room. [3]
Despite been knockout, Hari was once again picked as a reserve fighter in the K-1 Grand Prix 2006 Finals against Paul Slowinski. He won the fight by unanimous decision.
Hari then fought Nickolas Pettas in the same year and broke Pettas's left arm in the second round with his powerful round kicks.
Hari got his revenge against Karaev onK-1 World GP 2007 in Yokohama. Karaev and Hari's matchup was one of two bouts to qualify for the first K-1 Heavyweight Title Match, scheduled on April 28, 2007 in Hawaii. The fight was a K-1 highlight as Hari was knocked down and was just able to make it to his feet when Karaev intended to finish the fight with a swinging punch when Hari ducked, and landed his own punch to score a KO.[4]
[edit] K-1 Heavyweight champion
On April 28, at K-1 World GP 2007 in Hawaii, Badr Hari and Yusuke Fujimoto fought for the newly introduced Heavyweight belt. Hari scored the first knockdown in 18 seconds then finished Fujimoto off with a kick to the chin. With the knockout Hari became the world's first ever K-1 Heavyweight champion.[5]
Hari got his chance for revenge against Graham in Hong Kong where he dropped Graham again won by unanimous decision.
On September 29, 2007 at the K-1 World GP 2007 Final Elimination, Badr Hari beat the K-1 World GP 2007 in Las Vegas tournament champion, Doug Viney, by a second round KO and qualified for his first K-1 World GP Final, held on December 8 in Yokohama, Japan. His winning streak came to an end with a decision loss to Remy Bonjasky, during quarter final.
[edit] 2008
All of Hari's wins in 2008 were by knockouts, by beating Ray Sefo in Yokohama, Glaube Feitosa in Fukuoka and Domagoj Ostojic in Hawaii. On his next fight in Seoul he qualified for the K-1 World GP 2008 Final by TKO win over the Korean giant Hong Man Choi.
In the quarterfinals on December 6, Hari defeated three time K-1 World champion Peter Aerts by TKO in the second round. Then in semis he knocked out Errol Zimmerman and headed to his first K-1 Final against Remy Bonjasky. After suffering a knockdown in the first, Hari was disqualified in the second round for unsportsmanlike conduct by stomping and punching an already downed Bonjasky. First the referee Nobuaki Kakuda issued a yellow card and one point deduction. Meanwhile Hari proceeded to Bonjasky’s corner shouting, and quarreled with his opponent's trainer Ivan Hippolyte who then also approached Hari aggresively, but the officials prevented any further physical contact between them.[6] After the five-minute recovery time elapsed, the doctor reported Bonjasky was seeing double and could not continue. Hari was issued a red card and Bonjasky was declared the K-1 World GP 2008 champion.[1]
In later interviews Badr claimed Bonjasky was acting, and that "Remy's corner was screaming at him to stay down" as a reason for his behaviours.[7]
After the event Badr was not suspended for his actions, but K-1 he was however stripped of his heavyweight title and his fee for participation in the tournament.[8]
While there were many rumours of his and his opponent's participation, it was finally announced that Badr would face MMA Heavyweight Alistair Overeem in a K-1 rules match on K-1's NYE extravaganza. Hari lost the fight by a left hook KO in the first round within 2 minutes. Part of the fight agreement is that both Badr and Overeem would also fight each other in an MMA match for FEG's DREAM promotion sometime in 2009.
[edit] Titles
* Former K-1 Heavyweight champion [9]
* 2002 WPKL Dutch Muay Thai champion
Moroccan celebrities 
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