As excited as I was to see Badr Hari’s K1 return, I admit I was a bit shocked to see his physical appearance when he first faced off against Braddock Silva. He looked different, and not only physically, there was a lack of fire in his eyes when he stared down Silva. He looked tired and uninterested. Physique-wise, his body also looked softer than it had in recent memory.
All these fears seemed to be laid to rest, though, when he knocked down Silva emphatically in the first round. But, much to Silva’s credit, he came to show that he could compete on the highest level of kickboxing and refused to stay down. Now, in the second round, is when things started to get interesting.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when it appeared that Badr Hari actually appeared TIRED in only the second round. For a moment, I almost thought that he might be acting, but then I realized that he wasn’t.
Silva definitely won the second round.
In fact, the third round could have been called a draw. Badr Hari was a little lucky that an extra round wasn’t called to decide a winner. With the lack of cardio he had, Silva could’ve pulled out the victory and what an upset that would’ve been!
Badr Hari’s performance has been universally questioned by those who saw it, by experts and fans a like. I, personally, have come up with some reasons behind Badr’s poor performance.
I want to make clear, however, these are ONLY my opinions, and I’m not backing them up with any concrete sources. These are just my thoughts.
1. He took the Silva fight on relatively short notice, and almost all fighters tend to stop training when in between fights.
2. He took Silva way too lightly. Silva has lost to Mourad Bouzidi, Catalin Morasanu, and is considered on the second tier level of kickboxers. On the other hand, Gokhan Saki is considered a top-level kickboxer, so Hari prepared himself appropiately for Saki.
3. Due to him training mostly boxing recently, he hadn’t trained his kickboxing technique as much as he should’ve. Also, his headspace might not be focused on kickboxing the way it should be.
4. And this will be my most controversial reason. PED testing is becoming more and more strict in the USA, where Badr would be fighting at some point if he was a boxer. I can’t help but think that he lessened up on any PED usage he might’ve previously been using, now that he would be fighting in the US. The recent suspension of Alistair Overeem and a laundry-list of boxers and MMA fighters has brought this issue to the forefront recently.
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A fine argument but with respect I doubt Badr uses he is not much larger or stronger than expected in the 5 to 6 year time span he’s been on the bigger levels, noted he did look less trim but there is no way hes been on his normal training schedule of course he’ll look a little flabby. His growth is very normal, I my self am a kickboxer and a year training with more passion than before made me much more trim and muscular and if I don’t train hard for a while I look a little out of shape and cardio goes down, use it or lose it. Japan was the scene that had no regulations on steriod use most of Badr’s fights have been in Eroupean promotions namely It’s Showtime were he won that world title. Eroupean sporting events Have much more integrity than the old FEG circus nor wold Ritcharson invest his valuable time in him if he was a user.
yes, you make good points.
i would agree with you, but it did seem he bulked up quite a bit after his loss with alistair overeem. although, of course, like you pointed out, it could just be result of intense training.
Hi Admin,
The fact that K1 came back and convinced Badr to fight again in short notice can play a role in this. Also he has not been training with Big Mike in Holland but with Naazim. Perhaps Naazim took his time to train Badr and not to train him day very hard. With Big Mike we saw Badr growing each time and there you can also conclude that Big Mike knows Badr very well as it is “his” golden boy.
That Badr uses PED is definately not true. If he used them he could use them without problems as he does not have a license to fight for boxing in USA. He is not the overeem type that has increased so many weight in short notice. Badr’s weight was the same, but his body was ripped because of training.
He was very well prepared for the fight against Saki as it felt/was for him a final for his kickboxing career. Ofcoure he did not want to lose.
Regarding Bradock, he also did not look so big and ripped. But that has nothing to do with condition and fighting.
Badr surely was not himself and what I read on the internet is that he has some private problems in the past months. You also wrote on this website “Is Badr going to be a father?” Probably yes, but not of his own girlfriend. Then you understand what kind of problems there are.
I also want to make clear, these are just rumors and I really do not know what is playing in the head of Badr. Badr is a Lion and should fight against what is bothering him. I am sure he will survive and come back greater than he was ever before.
BTW. Daniel Ghita surely does not sit still this year, he has so many fights. The guy is a machine. Badr only will have 3 fights. I hope he has some good sparring partners, otherwise it can be nasty against Ghita.
Ghita vs Hari is the fight everyone wants to see. It will be interesting to see if Badr is able to truly reach his full potential with all the distractions going on in his life. BUt, like you say, he is a lion, and he has a great opportunity to achieve the one distinction in kickboxing that has eluded him – the K1 Grand Prix Title.
Don’t you know yet about Badr Hari and Estelle Cruijff, who is married to Ruud Gullit? It is all over in the Dutch press:
http://www.google.nl/search?q=Badr+Hari+estelle+gullit
There are rumours that she is pregnant from him and that’s why Ruud Gullit and Estelle Cruijff are getting divorced as she wants to keep the baby.
Do you remember what Badr Hari said after he beat Gokhan Saki at his farewell fight? He said that ‘it was a little like Cruijff’. (Of course referring to the football succes of Johan Cruijff, the uncle of Estelle Cruijff.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlZtiTXwfUI#t=0m15s
scandalous!
pathetic article…
1.Badr easily won round 3: strikes sent 56 for badr hari and only 37 for silva. Dangerous/powerful Shots: 6 for badr and only 3 for silva. Aggressiveness: a small advantage for Badr(had initiative)
2.In round three Badr seemed fresher than anderson silva, how can you say that Anderson Silva could win extra round because Badr was tired?
i don’t know where you’re getting your stats from, but if they’re accurate then badr did win the fight. however, he still looked bad, he has a long way to go winning the grand prix.
indeed, he was in horrible shape against silva, but still won the fight without any doubt. statistic is “made” by me…I saw 10 times round 3, and I count all shots(who entered, that were only sent, and Dangerous/powerful Shots). Look very closely at Round 3, you will see that the difference was clear. But Badr has no excuse for his performance, he must destroy silva. Silva is slow with no ko power, and is smaller than hari…
P.S: I’m boxing coach in Romania
Ah I see, yes I agree he did win round three, but just looked out of shape.