Hhighly anticipated heavyweight rematch between Glory heavyweight kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven and Badr Hari lived up to the hype, up until the disappointing ending.
In front of a raucous crowd in The Netherlands, Hari dropped Verhoeven with a great right hand early in round one, marking the first time in his Glory career that Rico had been dropped.
Badr comes out firing!! 🔥 #GLORY #Collision2 #UnfinishedBusiness pic.twitter.com/hqyFiGfKAf
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) December 21, 2019
Verhoeven fought well in round two and was quite aggressive by his standards. Hari came back with a high kick knockdown in round three, putting him in prime position for a huge win.
Badr looked real good up until his injury #Collision2 pic.twitter.com/EYiUnBqu1K
— ShayMyName (@ImShannonTho) December 21, 2019
Just seconds later, Hari threw a spinning kick and fell down. The referee ruled it a knockdown, Hari was in noticeable pain after injuring his ankle, and that ended up being the end of the contest. Hari was screaming expletives and was in tears after such an unfortunate ending.
Badr Hari hurt his ankle somehow during this kick and he's balling on the canvas. He's obviously pissed this happened during this huge fight. #Collision2 pic.twitter.com/vIzdL7r4LU
— ShayMyName (@ImShannonTho) December 21, 2019
If anyone recalls their first encounter in 2016, Hari had an arm injury TKO defeat, so to get hurt again three years later is so devastating. He was ultimately carried out of the ring on a stretcher.
Perhaps we’ll see a trilogy between these two — ideally sooner than three years — and we could get a more satisfying conclusion.
