One of the famous kickboxers biggest fans and friend Bloodstain Lane broke the news via his Twitter account.
It’s Showtime held an event January 28th in Leeuwarden, Netherlands with Badr headlining the event against Gokhan Saki. It was billed as his retirement fight. Badr dominated the fight & won via TKO only 2:44 into the fight. At the time Badr was going to make the move to boxing but the allure of K-1 has brought the former heavyweight champion back.
When he made the decision to retire K-1′s future was cloudy at best. Now K-1 is officially back & has announced events in the near future. They infamous K-1 World Grand Prix will return as well late in the year. That title has slipped through Badr’s fingers & he will have his sights on winning the tournament finally.
In 2008 Badr came close to winning the Grand Prix but was disqualified in the final against Remy Bonjansky. 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. After the 5 minute recovery time elapsed, the doctor reported Bonjasky was seeing double and could not continue. A red card was issued & Bonjansky won the tournament.
A year later Badr made it back to the GP final. This time he went against Semmy Schilt. Schilt knocked him down 3 times in the first round for a TKO victory. Badr had come up short two years in a row.
His skills have improved since those losses. This was very apparent in his dominant victory in January over Saki. With that Grand Prix eluding him & in many people’s opinion, being the best kickboxer in the world, the return of K-1 was too much for him. Fans of the sport are excited that the biggest name in the sport will return to the grandest stage in the sport.
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