The Hari Retrospective: Badr Hari vs. Stefan Leko II

In less than a week, K-1 superstar Badr Hari will make his return to the world of kickboxing after an extended layoff which was borne of troubles both in and outside the ring. Our series highlighting important moments in the career of Badr Hari continues with a feature on his second bout against Stefan Leko. Tim Burke did a wonderful job summarizing the first meeting between the two fighters in his article posted yesterday. I would encourage reading that along with this piece if you haven't had the chance to read it already.

When a crowd of nearly 60,000 gathered at the Tokyo Dome on November 19, 2005 to witness the K-1 World Grand Prix 2005 final, they are sure to have expected great action. While the tournament delivered, those fans are unlikely to have realized that they might bear witness to an early spark in the career of one of the sport's brightest stars. That spark would come not in the tournament field itself, but rather in a reserve bout that pitted 20-year-old Badr Hari against Stefan Leko.

That bout, of course, was Hari's second against the German-Croatia fighter.The 20-year-old Hari dropped his first bout against Leko just five months prior at It's Showtime 2005 Amsterdam. In that first bout, the young fighter succumbed to a spinning back kick to the midsection after just under two minutes of competition. Entering the November rematch, Hari was little more than a young fighter who worked his way through the Dutch scene and scored a solid win over Vitali Akhramenko in his K-1 debut.

As history shows, Hari's reserve bout win didn't get him into the tournament field as it did for the other reserve bout winner, Glaube Feitosa. Nor did it completely erase concern regarding the holes pesent in Hari's game - those were still quite present and observable even in victory. What the bout did, however, was enable Badr Hari to avenge an early career loss and to do so with a quick turnaround and in dramatic fashion. What's more, the very drama of the moment surely helped Hari down the line as subsequent losses to Peter Graham and Ruslan Karaev gave way to marked success in 2007 and the beginnings of the Badr Hari legend.

To truly situate Hari's win over Leko and understand the broader importance of that November 2005 event, it may be best to also consider what happened in the actual tournament that evening.

The tournament quarterfinal bouts were set to feature veterans and relative newcomers alike, pitting two-time defending champion Remy Bonjasky against Hong-man Choi, former tournament runner-up Ray Sefo against Semmy Schilt, three-time champion Peter Aerts against Jerome Le Banner, and 2003 runner-up Musashi against Ruslan Karaev.

Bonjasky and Schilt advanced with decision victories after three rounds, while both Aerts and Musashi were taken to an extension round by their opponents before securing victory. Despite overcoming a formidable challenge from Jerome Le Banner, Peter Aerts was ultimately unable to continue in the tournament because of a fractured rib. Stepping in for Aerts would be Glaube Feitosa, who cruised past Gary Goodridge in an aforementioned reserve bout.

Feitosa would ultimately advance to the final by stopping Musashi inside two rounds with a flying knee. On the other side of the bracket, Semmy Schilt defeated Remy Bonjasky by first round knockout. Schilt quickly dispatched Feitosa when the two karateka met in the tournament final, the massive Dutch heavyweight having defeated his Brazilian counterpart just a couple months before in Osaka as well. The tournament victory marked the first of three in a row for Semmy Schilt, a streak which of course remains uncontested.

Yes, for all intents and purposes, Badr Hari managed to outshine the beginning of an uncontested championship run, an amazing knockout on the part of Glaube Feitosa, and a great amount of hotly contested tournament action all while fighting in a reserve bout that ended up having absolutely zero influence over the tournament. He did it by succeeding where he once failed against Leko - surviving a full round. He did it by overcoming the momentary lapses in judgment which plague a young fighter. He did it with a single kick.

After the jump, we'll take a quick look at the action from Badr Hari's second bout with Stefan Leko and enjoy the fight video as well.

Badr Hari established himself as the more active fighter in the opening moments of the bout, as Stefan Leko leaned on leg kicks before ending up on his back after catching a kick thrown by Hari. The trend continued after the bout was reset, Hari mixing in leg kicks, mid kicks, front kicks, and the occasional jab before Leko opened up himself and landed a couple solid crosses midway through the opening frame. After a quick exchange in close, Hari began to go to work at a measured pace, once again employing an effective front kick to create distance and throwing knees when Leko managed to advance.

Although a routine moment at first glance, perhaps the most interesting exchange of the first round came with about thirty seconds remaining as Hari backed away and provided Leko an opportunity to reset. It was in a similar set of circumstances that Leko found victory in the first bout between the two, and he looked to find the same result, firing off a spinning back kick to Hari's midsection. Whereas the technique crumpled Hari five months earlier, the young fighter managed to step back and block the impact of the blow. The biggest difference between the end of the first fight and this? The first bout saw Hari circling left, directly into the spinning back kick. In the rematch, Hari was obviously cognizant of the need to avoid that same mistake. The first round ended with little more in the way of exchanges, Hari continuing to use a front kick to keep distance and also managing to connect with a solid cross in the closing seconds.

Entering the second round, Badr Hari was coming off of three solid minutes in which he showed consistent awareness and a commitment to intelligently engaging Leko. Be that as it may, the opening moments of the second were a bit shaky for the young fighter. Within the first forty seconds of the round, Hari threw two errant crosses which were both countered by Leko. The first, which came in the opening moments of the round, lacked any real set up at all and was met with a stiff jab. The second, which followed a leg kick, was countered by a two-punch combination from Leko (a combination of which only the latter punch, a cross, landed).

Having worked through the rough patch at the opening of the round, Hari again looked to create distance and successfully did so on a number of instances - first by circling and subsequently by merely pushing Leko away when he got inside. A key moment came at the 1:45 mark, as Hari pushed Leko away and followed with a weak attempt at a spinning back kick. Nothing impressive there, but Leko reacted by backing away and dropping his hands. The two fighters engaged again and Hari created separation once more by circling left. Less than ten seconds after the weak kick thrown to Leko's midsection, Hari committed to another kick. Leko dropped his hands once more as the kick came around, only this time it came in high. Heel connected with jaw and the young Badr Hari instantly owned one of the most impressive knockouts in the history of kickboxing.