How will elite kickboxers Badr Hari and Rico Verhoeven do in the heavyweight division of boxing?

Hari reminds me a lot of Wilder. Both very tall, gangly, explosive and aggressive fighters with a ton of natural power but very raw and over-emotional. Handled correctly he could have been a world class boxer, but mentally I think he would have imploded at some point. He was just too wild and unstable. Now, of course, he's way too old to do anything in boxing, and doesn't have the discipline to adapt.

Verhoeven is a great all rounder, but like Aydamm said he trained boxing to improve that weak spot in his game and complement his overall style. He might do better at this stage than Hari would but he wouldn't be anything exceptional. He's just not that spectacular a puncher.

 

Yeah, tactics was definitely not Hari's strong point. He doesn't think clearly or cooly enough to fight on anything other than instinct which is why he lost so many he should have won. Verhoeven is a master strategist and tactician in the HW division, who makes up for his lack of speed and power with relentlessly consistent application of the fundamentals until his opponent is broken down. Nothing flashy about him at all, but you'll never see him make sloppy mistakes like Hari.

 

Alexander Ustinov had a similar run to Skelton, another big guy (huge in Ustinov's case) who just ground down his opposition without being particularly skilled but just tough as nails.

I haven't seen much of Spong in boxing, but he had some skills in kickboxing so I can imagine him doing well in the HW division provided he's able to apply his tactics against better opponents.

 

Generally if you're tough and huge and can punch you're at least not going to do too shabily in the HWs. You might not reach the top but you'll potentially do alright enough to challenge some of the upper crust from time to time. Skelton and Ustinov both did fine while their bodies held up, and I think someone like Jamal Ben Saddik would probably do pretty well for similar reasons (although his chin is a bit iffy compared to those two).

 

Ruslan Karaev, Zabit Semedov, Peter Graham. You could add Alistair Overeem in there as well depending on how highly you rate him.

 

It's a pretty decent assumption though. Technically all Hari had to do was survive the next two and a bit rounds without getting knocked down and he would have won. Verhoeven likely would have rallied back in the championship rounds but unless he stopped Hari he would have lost on the cards and I couldn't see that being a strong possibility unless Hari's leg injury was a cumulative thing that would have got worse had the fight worn on.

 

I believe in all those cases Hari underestimated them

With Zabit he beat him twice then on the third it looks like he just let him win? Hari could have gotten up but just chose to stay down when he has beenbhit far harder before Zabit is just 6 foot 200 pounds really

When he lost Graham he was literally a baby
Like 19 and skinny as hell (still had KO power) but graham was clearly an experienced wiser adult.. hari went on to beat him twice so dont really read into that fight much

Alistair was a strong mofo and experienced fighter not K1 level but he was fighting professionally since tyrone spong started fighting way back when they were kids... hari underestimated him and got KOd because alistair was on roids and was a wrecking machine at that point

Hari made short work of alistair in their second meeting when he predicted correctly that alistair would not past 2 or 3 minutes in the ring

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Ruslan Karaev wasnt elite elite but was a decent fighter i dont remember the loss clearly but inknow hari beat him twice

id rate Ricoo pretty high in the overall list of badr opppnents.. maybe like top 10

 

No need to write all that apologetic stuff. I'm answering the question, and none of those guys with the possible exception of a roiled up Overeem was on the same level as Verhoeven.

I agree with a lot of what you write in this thread but that statement was a silly one, easily debunked.

 

Yeah I think Rico would have gotten him though. The vast majority of Glory heavies are toast in the 4th and 5th rounds and Rico is arguably at his strongest there (good example was when he KO'd JBS in the 5th round and I believe he called that round as well) Obviously we can only speculate either way because the fight never got to that point. 3rd fight needs to happen this year to close the chapter between these two. Hopefully Hari can heal up and stay out of trouble so it happens sooner rather than later.

 

Not being apologetic I just dont count those times as a Badr losing to worse fighter than Ricoo because he shouldn’t have lost those really

I have no problem admitting when someone loses a fair fight but i dont believe badr lost to a worse fighter than Ricoo where it was a fair fight and he was prepared

 

Hari was hurting rico with less shots than JBS threw against Rico and he was hurting him more

Badr is more accurate experience technical and hits harder than Jamal

Rico is very durable but Hari was minutes away from KOing Rico imo on both occassions they fought

Hari’s body is finished imo like David Haye too kuch wear and tear so a third fight is meaningless to me

I saw what i needed to see and Badr is the better fighter

 

We've already been in circles man. a 3rd fight needs to happen. No excuses. It's going to happen this year and may the best man win.

 

I’ve wanted to see Saddick/Hari for the longest time.

 

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Badr Hari lighting up Rico from the first round

Rico was getting owned