Badr Hari will fight in a rematch in his next appearance, but not against Rico Verhoeven.
“The Golden Boy” takes on Hesdy Gerges in the main event of GLORY 51: Rotterdam on March 3 in Ahoy, GLORY confirmed by press release.
GLORY announced during the GLORY 49 SuperFight Series that Hari resigned with the kickboxing organization after completing his sentence for five assault cases in 2012 last month.
Now, the fighter from Amsterdam will face another ghost from the past in Gerges, who he fought in the main event of It’s Showtime 2010 Amsterdam on the 29th of May 2010 in the Amsterdam Arena. Hari got disqualified after kicking “Fighterheart” when he fell on the floor.
GLORY CEO Jon J. Franklin told MMA Plus recently that Hari will get a tune-up fight before a possible rematch with the GLORY heavyweight champion. Less than 24 hours later that opponent was announced.
Hari fought Verhoeven on last year’s GLORY: Collision, GLORY’s biggest event to date. The Moroccan lost by TKO due to an arm injury.
Gerges, who’s trained by Hari’s former trainer Thom Harinck, also lost his most recent outing by stoppage. In September, Mladen Brestovac head kicked the Dutchman in 36 seconds on GLORY 45: Amsterdam.
Minutes after GLORY announced they signed Hari on a long-term deal, “Fighterheart” started a campaign on Instagram to fight his former foe.
Gerges dealt with his own legal troubles recently: the Dutchman was convicted to 4.5 years in prison by the Belgian Court of Appeal for a cocaine smuggling case in 2010 in Antwerp, but won’t have to do any jail time on the condition that Gerges won’t commit a crime in Belgium over the next five years.
Enfusion demands money from Badr Hari
GLORY’s competitor Enfusion recently announced they’ll sue Hari for breach of contract, as the organization claims they signed “The Golden Boy” before GLORY did. The organization demands around one million euro in damages, as they planned a fight with Hari in Antwerp, AD reports.
“We’ve told the management of Badr Hari that we hold them responsible for damages. We’re currently calculating how high the loss is, which is close to a million euro. If we don’t reach an agreement, we’ll make it a civil lawsuit in Ghent,” Enfusion’s lawyer Walter van Steenbrugge tells AD.
Hari’s manager, and lawyer, Jacques de Wit claims Hari and Enfusion only had a ‘draft agreement’, which was breached after Enfusion missed a deadline to pay a portion of the money up-front.
Despite the claim, Enfusion can’t stop Hari from competing in March.
