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Denzil Stone – Atlantic City

Former K-1 heavyweight Badr Hari, a renowned and experienced kickboxer who has converted to the sweet science, has received the ultimate commendation from Brother Nazim Richardson who has likened Hari’s arrival to his gym to what his former mentor Freddie Roach went through when he caught Manny Pacquiao‘s punches in his pads during their first workout together. Hari, according to Richardson, has the necessary goods for success.

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Hari has good heavyweight size at 6'6 and 235lbs. Credit: Paul Blank, Creative Commons

“Badr Hari is a good dude and so is his trainer Mike [Passenier],” Richardson told Fight Hype recently.

An assistant trainer to Roach who now runs his own show with Steve Cunningham and Shane Mosley in his stable of fighters, Richardson is currently preparing Bernard Hopkins in what is the light heavyweight world champion’s first defence against top contender Chad Dawson on Saturday, October 15. Should Hopkins – as underdog – secure victory then not only will it be considered another ground-breaking triumph for the fighter, but also for Richardson who coached Hopkins throughout camp and has put together the gameplan.

Adding to his stable, though, Richardson will oversee the development of Hari – a Dutchman of Moroccan lineage – from kickboxer to boxer: “Badr Hari won me over, man. As soon as we met, he told me he wouldn’t let me down and that he would make me proud but that’s not what won me over. What won me over is he said, ‘I don’t want to be top ten. I want to be the effing best.’ He has the right mentality to do this ish right here.

“He feels he’s indestructible,” Richardson, who is famed for the golden nuggets of wisdom he imparts onto his fighters between rounds, said, before adding: “I told him, ‘You have a trunk of weaponry and you have an army of guys coming up the stairs to get you. Your problem is you don’t know if you want to shoot them with the M16, AR, 9MM, assault rifle, sawed off shotgun or the M4.

“By the time you figure out which one you’re going to use, they are up the stairs and in your ish. See those two brothers in Europe got one weapon and it’s a shotgun. They sitting on the couch with it and when that knob turns they’re shooting you with it’. I told him that’s the only difference and our goal is to figure out when to use those weapons. I think this guy has the goods, man. He is every bit 6’6. A legit 6’6.”

Freddie Roach has made no secret of what effect meeting Manny Pacquiao (53-3-2, 38ko) has had on him personally and also his career, labeling it as “life-changing“. Brother Naz now feels similar emotions, for the trainer believes that, in a matter of the years, he will be making similar statements regarding Badr: “Bouie Fisher used to always tell me in the gym, ‘Watch that door and eventually the right kid is going to walk through it.

“I asked him what he meant by that and he said, ‘One day, a kid is going to walk through that door and do whatever you tell him to do and be able to adjust to anything that you want him to adjust to.’ I remember when me and Freddie Roach worked together and Freddie told me when Pacquiao walked through the door at Wildcard, he said to himself, ‘That’s who I built this gym for.’ Badr Hari could be that type of kid.”

Hari, who was 77-11, 63ko as a pro kickboxer, added on Fight Hype: “[Boxing] is where my focus is. I have met Nazim and cannot wait to work with him.”

Badr Hari has a brace of kickboxing bouts before his finalised move to boxing is complete. On October 29 he takes on Anderson Silva in the K-1 World Grand Prix before a January 28 dust-up with Gokhan Saki.

(Embedded video above credit – Youtube, StillW1ll)

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