How would Hari's Juan Manuel Marquez do against the young and Hungry Glory champ? He has been on a string of confidence and improvement since the upset.
Zabit is one of the fighters I'd love to see in Glory. If I'm honest though, I think Rico is too big and too technical for Zabit. Rico via unanimous decision. I think Zabit may have better luck in Glory as a light heavyweight. Either way, I'd love to have him in Glory but I don't see him beating Rico.
samedov is too small for verhoeven and consistently runs hot and cold - with very few signature wins to his name. still, he's one of the top LHW kickboxers and I've always wanted to see him vs zhuravlev and saki (untill zhuravlev decided to lose )
Badir Hari is taller than Rico. I don't consider Zabit a LHW anymore. Watch his last fight against Paul Slowinski who's also pretty big and experienced. The streak he's on now is his prime years. I really want to see this match happen. I wouldn't know who to pick.
Badr was pushing Zabit around the ring in all three of their fights. And using his win over a shot Slowinski to argue that he'd be able to stand toe-to-toe with Verhoeven is laughable, considering they fought almost a decade earlier and not only did Slowinski walk him down, but took him out in the first with low kicks (admittedly, he could have arguably continued to fight). Furthermore, his "streak" amounts to wins over Hari (good win, and despite it being a shadow of what Hari was, is his greatest acheivement to date), Manhoef (yet another shot fighter, but noteable nonetheless) and Danyo Illunga (former It's Showtime champ, but a moderate win in absoute terms). Wins over McKinnon, Leko and Slowinski (the latter two especially nowadays) don't amount to anything and shouldn't be used as evidence that he could be in any way competitive against the most dominant HW champ of the modern era.
Hari is not Shot in any way, When Zabit KOed him. He was coming off 4 win streak that included Silva, Saki and Zabit himself. and he didn't lose any of the 5 fights he had after the last Zabit fight, which included flashy KOs. I know prime is subjective, but Zabit is also a year older than Hari too. I'm sure he can be competetive
There is more than just looking at W/L on someones record. Hari wasn't himself after prison at that point at all. Samedov has one of the more silly records of any of the better HW's in the world. Picks and chooses who he fights instead fighting the other top talent out there. And again, he totally lost to Ilunga.
Perhaps I could have phrased my reply more appropriately. By no means was I trying to suggest was as bad as he appeared in he Londt fight, but certainly not as competative as he once was when he competed in K-1 (the legitimate K-1, that is). You also have to remember that Badr was imprisoned in 2012 after a brief retirement and physically delined significantly. In his return fight, he fought Zabit himself and won with an incredibly poor performance that we were used to seeing from him. In the rematch, and in spite of his current physical condition, Hari was still able to be competative before being dropped and simply gave up on his knees (again, this is Samedovs greatest win to date). in his next few bouts, he put on yet another lackluster performance against Ignashov (who was completely passed his best), fought in three squash matches and then was dropped in the first against Londt. I feel compelled to reiterate that I happen to be a fan of Samedov when he's competeing at his best; he simply lacks the resume that would lead me to believe (at least on paper) that he could go anywhere near Verhoeven in terms of competitiveness.
Now? Samedov was never a heavyweight anyway, but at this moment Hari is decent enough to knock him out. Zabit is a very good light heavyweight in my opinion. Regarding Badr, I don"t think he"s top form at all, a fit Londt would have knocked him out. Samedov isn"t a magnificent HW at all. And his last fights on the resume are hard wins over non-quality opponents (old Slowinski and Poturak). Or against Ilunga, it was pure robbery, not to mention that it was Danyo"s first match at the HW. He also couldn"t knock Ahmadi out for example. Adegbuyi broke his hand after some seconds... BUT Zabit is a magnificent LHW in my opinion, he should be signed by Glory. He had a fight once in Superkombat, but the title bout versus Andrei Stoica didn"t materialize because of his injury.
Ya Zabit didn't KO Hari, Hari got dropped and just quit... Rico beats him, but I'd atleast be interested in that fight.
