Some translated bits of
Warrior Talk #11.
This was recorded on Thursday.
Remy mentioned he recently did an interview with Rise's Takashi Ito and they discussed Chatri's comments about Japanese judges being biased. Apparently Rise representatives sent a letter to Chatri or something regarding his claims. Boapeah chimed in that his trainers always told him to not let it come to the judges whenever he fights abroad. Remy said while he generally doesn't want to agree with Chatri, his own experience against Musashi was an example of hometown favoritism. He added that even the crowd was uncomfortable when the extra rounds were called. Harinck said he went through the same when his pupil Cikatic fought Sataake, but luckily his other pupil Aerts ended up winning the tournament.
Dr. Ludidi added that there's an emotional component that is difficult to distance yourself from when judging your own countrymen. Remy and Harinck responded that eventually after some complaints K-1 introduced international judges.
Remy brought up the announcement of
House of Glory and most table guests seemed to like it. Harinck has his doubts about young fighters being suddenly coached by Rico or Badr instead of their trusted trainers.
Michael Boapeah
- Was an aggressive kid who went to a special school for troubled youths.
- Football didn't work out for him so he started kickboxing at age 14 (9 years ago).
- His first gym doesn't exist anymore and after some back and forth he eventually ended up training at Mike Polanen's gym.
- Has only had about 15 fights in total.
- Always saw his parents struggle and wanted a way to give them a better future.
- At first his parents were skeptical, but eventually they started to believe in him.
- Says he is alround, but feels his motivation is his biggest strength.
- Heard that if he's able to beat Bokeme, he'll be next in line for a title shot.
- Doesn't want to look past Bokeme.
- Feels he simply is hungrier than Bokeme.
- Only needs to lose two more kgs.
- Predicts Wisse to beat Serkan.
- Hopes that not only the heavyweights get attention in Glory.
Dr. Ludidi (Nutritionist)
- Says while extreme weightcuts are part of fight culture, they're disastrous for your health.
- The only way to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time is losing fluids.
- As a result of these extreme weightcuts fighters are a lot more susceptible to damage and getting knocked down/out.
- Says throughout the year fighters should aim not to stray more than 3-4 kgs from their fightweight.
- Says while One's type of weigh-ins isn't perfect, it's better than not looking at hydration at all.
- Advises against hiring experts who specialize in cutting weight and to stay away from any extreme cutting altogether.
- Him and his brother started Karate as kids.
- Was always interested in food and nutrition and how it affects performance.
- Does annual nutrition related seminars at SB gym.
- Says big platforms like podcasts and Remy's warrior talk are needed to spread awareness about these topics.
- Has worked with big names like Badr.
- Was approached to work with Badr after he released a book about intermittent fasting.
- Badr always had issues training during Ramadan and wanted Ludidi's help preparing him for his second fight with Rico in 2019.
- Says Badr took his advice more seriously than he expected, because he saw it worked.
- Currently works with Nabil Khachab (and some UFC fighters).
- Main focus with Khachab at the moment is less reliance on sugars and more efficient recovery.
- Says he has solutions for everyone, not just people with bigger budgets.
- Would advise any aspiring fighters to 'professionalise' within their respective means (diet schedules etc.).
- Says professional nutrition doesn't have to be exclusive to big budgets.
- Says some trainers push back against his ideas of nutrition, because whatever they are used to certain routines.
- While emphasizing the importance of physical fitness, also brought up a quote from Evander Holyfield as a bit of a cautionary tale. Holyfield said modern boxing has become an excercise of who has the better cardio, rather than who's the better boxer. Remy added that he agrees in that yes cardio is important, but most time should be spent in the dojo/kickfighting gym, not on the bicycle.
Muhammed Simsek
- Has a bit of trouble getting to 61kg as he's already pretty dry at 65kg.
- Uses henna as a bit of a ritual before his fights.
- Was actually classmates in school with Boapeah.
- Started kickboxing 8 years ago.
- Only lost 1 of 35 fights or 2 in 36 after the weekend. Both losses to the same fighter (Daalman).
- Got knocked out by Daalman in their first fight, because he got careless after scoring multiple knockdowns on his opponent.
- Used to train with Serkan Ă–zcaglayan.
- Likes the 8TKO tournament concept as a true way to decide who's the best.
- Would like to grow further and chase bigger titles after winning the Enfusion title.
Thom Harinck
- His daughter in-law (who is a director) recently made a film/documentary about him.
- Got a reward from the deputy mayor of Amsterdam for his contributions as a trainer. He's kept a lot of troubled youths off the streets with his gym in a bad neighbourhood.
- Says he never expected Raul Catinas - who also trained under him - getting knocked out like that.
- Says back in the day fighters used to weigh in on the day of the fight.
- Feels nutrition should be part of any kickboxing trainer's education.
- Says Badr is more intelligent than people give him credit for.
- Says while Badr could/can be a handful, he personally never had trouble with him.
- Still doesn't really know why Simon Rutz poached Badr away from him.
- Feels like fighters surrounding themselves with too many specialized coaches can have an adverse effect.
- Harinck feels sparring is very important.
- When Badr first fought Hesdy, Badr was 118kg and Hesdy was 98kg. Badr's excessive bulk made it difficult to keep up.
- When Badr fought Hesdy again, Hesdy was much heavier and therefore his performance suffered.
- Feels heavyweights are getting way too large. Says Cikatic and Aerts 80+ something kgs when they won their first K-1 tournaments.
- Always had fights with Lloyd van Dams about his weight when he would get latenight pizzas lol.
- Initially had a Karate and boxing background.
- Was disqualified after knocking down an oponent with a punch to the face in a Kyokushin fight in the early 1970s.
- After that he started to train Karate with boxing gloves which is essentially how his version of Dutch style Kickboxing was born.
- They started wearing red suits in his gym to stand out. This got him in trouble with the Karate governing body.
- His gym dominated early events where multiple stand-up styles were allowed to compete against each other.
- Went from long kickboxing pants to short football shorts.
- His gym grew a bit cocky after winning multiple fights/tournaments all over Europe and thought they would dominate the same way when they were invited to Thailand. They got their asses handed to them.
- He was ashamed of his team's performance.
- He sent his fighters home and stayed in Thailand for three months and did training camps at the three big training camps at the time (including Sityodtong). Picked up how to use elbows and knees.
- Started instructing his own students and founded a governing body MTBN: Muay Thai Bond Nederland.
- Started organizing MT rules events in the Netherlands.
- Says Cor Hemmers and Ramon Deckers approached him to learn MT techniques.
- Trained many of the legends like Aerts and Cikatic.
- Feels like his mentality helped his fighters become as successfull as they have.
- Is 80 years old now and still loves the sport.
- Says K-1 was aiming for a million dollar Grand Prix prize, but they weren't around long enough.
- Aerts returned to him after losing to Badr.
- Aerts was completely finished after beating Schilt in the 2010 K-1 Grand Prix, but Harinck was able to give him a pep talk to get ready for Overeem.
- Prepared Hesdy for his first fight against Badr by having him spar Aerts, LeBanner and Zeyada in short 1 minute intervals. After the fight with Badr, Hesdy told Harinck he got beaten worse in sparring than by Badr.
- His mindset and principal during the Chakuriki gym days were doing things that others didn't think were possible.
- Believes it's absurd that there are multiple governing bodies in the Netherlands and is very positive about the initiative of reducing it to just one.
- Tried to do the same thing 30 years ago, but never got the needed recognition.
- Has 8 gyms around the world.
- Still is active in the sport outside of the Netherlands, doing seminars etc.
- Says Badr should still be able to beat everybody if he didn't try to force the KO in the first round every time.
- Implies that if Badr loses to McSweeney it's done.
- Told his younger fighters in the gym like Hesdy to hold back a bit against Aerts and LeBanner when they were getting older and couldn't take the same amounts of punishment anymore.
Remy brought up the possibility of McSweeney entering the Grand Prix by beating Badr and Boapeah smiled to Remy and said "You don't want that, do you?" lol. Remy replied that a Grand Prix without any big names is a big risk for Glory.
There was a bit of discussion about The Netherlands not honoring their sports legends.
They all agreed that heavyweights are getting a bit out of hands in terms of size. Everyone also agrees that the return of tournaments is a good development as it was sorely missing.
Very good, interesting talk.I don't know about his overall health, but Harinck appears to be in crazy shape both physically and mentally. The man is 80 and remembers every detail, year etc.