"It's my second week here and training is going well. I went to the gym and hooked up with Naazim. We talked about it before and now it's happening. He is an extraordinary trainer and a very smart guy. It's like we say in the streets, real recognize real and everything is going very well. He is a very smart guy and he can help me a lot. We just have a good connection and the vibe is very good. I think we have some serious future plans ahead of us; everything is going how I expected it to be going...I'm like a kid in a candy store to be around boxing this much. It's hard to explain to people, but I really just like to fight. I enjoy fucking people up, and I know a lot of fighters say that, but it's true with me; I like to fight...the way I see it now is we're in the States to stay and we're training very hard to do big things. We're here to stay," stated former legendary kickboxing sensation Badr Hari, who is now officially in the United States training with Brother Naazim Richardson as he gets set to embark on his boxing career. Check out what he had to say about training, his future plans, and much more.
PC: Congratulations on closing out your kickboxing career in impressive fashion. You made your fight against Gokhan Saki look very easy.
BH: Yeah Percy, the last fight I had, you know what? I know Saki for a long time and I could tell he was very uncomfortable and I think he was prepared for the worst. But everything was very easy. I was very respectful. I wanted to enjoy my moment and I wanted to end my career with a smile and that's what I did against him. I think he was prepared for that and I just think he was shook from the beginning, you know?
PC: Definitely. It's so rare that you see a guy with your height throw the uppercut against a guy much shorter, but that's exactly what you did and I think it caught him off guard. He wasn't prepared for that punch.
BH: Yeah. yeah! You know what? It is it's difficult to say because you never fight a guy that big that can use distance and never stand right in front of you, so it's like the moment I was in front of him, it was like, "Damn, you're a tall guy," and it's like, "Yeah. you didn't know from before?" (Laughing) He forgot about the height; it's like he didn't prepare for that aspect at all. I think he miscalculated on my height during training and that was a big issue for him also.
PC: No matter how tall the guys are who you train with. it's a lot different when they're actually in there with you.
BH: It's true, and we talked about it because there was a question where they said he's fought a lot of guys taller than I was and I told him, "Listen, you can train with however many tall guys you want to train with, but it's not the same." When you get in a fight, it's so different when somebody's reach advantage is 10 to 15 centimeters more than yours. It's a different ball game. You need a fucking Bluetooth connection to hit somebody. It's all different because the tension comes and it doesn't matter if you had 10 fights or 100 fights, it's all the same, you know? It's a whole different story from the gym, you know?
PC: I've received emails calling you the Michael Jordan of kickboxing, and your trainer, Mike Passenier, called you the greatest kickboxer of all time. Where do you rank yourself, or do you leave that for the media to touch on?
BH: It's difficult to say those things about yourself. I don't get into those kinds of things and that kind of thinking. I'm not sure just yet because I'm still moving on and I think the fighting game is the fighting game. But it's up to the people how they think about me as a person, you know? As a fighter, I did what I had to do, but it's important how they talk about me as a person. As a fighter, I'm just a product and we do what we have to do and then somebody else comes along. History is always changing, so I don't think about these kinds of things. But when I'm finished with fighting, we will see how people want to talk about me, but I think it's too soon to talk about those kinds of things.
PC: You have been in the States for a couple of weeks now to pursue your boxing career. A lot of people have been emailing me for an update, so how is everything going with Naazim?
BH: Yeah, good, you know. It's my second week here and training is going well. I went to the gym and hooked up with Naazim. We talked about it before and now it's happening. He is an extraordinary trainer and a very smart guy. It's like we say in the streets, real recognize real and everything is going very well. He is a very smart guy and he can help me a lot. We just have a good connection and the vibe is very good. I think we have some serious future plans ahead of us; everything is going how I expected it to be going.
PC: You will be heading out to Big Bear to the Shane Mosley camp with Naazim. I think that will be a great experience for you. What are you looking to take away from being out there?
BH: Of course I think for me, in the beginning, it's a big opportunity to see what goes on. Like I said, I'm the new kid on the block. I have my talents, but I still have to develop a lot. This is a big opportunity for me to see how things go and see how these guys are training and see how the atmosphere is and we will be going up to this place as long as I'm in the boxing game. I think it will be one of my second homes if I like the atmosphere over there, so I'm looking forward to it and just staying busy with training and boxing 24/7. I think that is the biggest treat to me. I'm like a kid in a candy store to be around boxing this much. It's hard to explain to people, but I really just like to fight. I enjoy fucking people up, and I know a lot of fighters say that, but it's true with me; I like to fight.
PC: Will you stay here for a couple of months and then go back home, and then return? How do you plan on doing things?
BH: Listen, I will be here for a couple of months and we have some plans going on. I cannot say a lot about it, but we have some big plans coming up. My whole family is still in Europe, so I will have to go back and forth for most of the year. If my Visa and everything goes through, I'm here to stay. There are many ways to get around. There is not just one road and the most important thing is I'm training. You just interviewed Teddy Atlas, who traveled to train his guy, so you can go back and forth if you have a good team. The world is your gym and you can train everywhere. But the way I see it now is we're in the States to stay and we're training very hard to do big things. We're here to stay.
PC: How is your weight right now?
BH: I'm like 240 pounds, maybe 250 pounds. That's my weight at the moment. I go up and down with my weight. I stay between 235 and 250 pounds, you know, but it's just about how I'm training and what I'm doing at the moment, but it's nothing I'm ever concerned about or anything. I'm just really concentrating on learning the Sweet Science right now.
PC: You told me that you really didn't understand how big your fan base was, but with the response I have been getting since we started talking, I can tell you that you have a huge following. What would you like to say to your loyal fans before I let you go?
BH: Yeah, of course, listen, that's what it is all about. When you enter an arena or the gym, you have things you want to accomplish, you know, and it's those guys that give you the love and those guys who take you from all of the bad things in life. So with that love and with that support, we will do something for sure. I'm just here to do my thing. I want to share my talents with the world and now we're in the United States and I'm here to do my thing with my fists and get bigger and better, so they have more things to watch out for; just one love, man.
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