Henri Hooft, also known as Harry Hooft (born May 21, 1969), is a Dutch former

kickboxer Kickboxing ( ) is a full-contact hybrid martial art and boxing type based on punching and kicking. Kickboxing originated in the 1950s to 1970s. The fight takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouth guards, shorts, and ...

and trainer. He is the head trainer at Kill Cliff FC and formerly the

Blackzilians The Blackzilians was a professional team of fighters in mixed martial arts, boxing, kickboxing, amateur wrestling and catch wrestling located in South Florida. The team had included former UFC champions Rashad Evans, Vitor Belfort, Eddie Alvarez ...

Career

Hooft was born and raised in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. At the age of 15, he became interested in combat sports. He started training with his brother in

full contact Karate Full contact karate is any format of karate where competitors spar (also called Kumite) full-contact and allow a knockout as winning criterion. History Full contact karate competition comes in several different formats developed for the art o ...

, but later switched to kickboxing. He already began competing after training for three months, winning several competitions. At the age of 18, he was invited by Dutch kickboxing world champion

Rob Kaman Robert Diem Kaman (5 June 1960 – 30 March 2024) was a Dutch nine-time kickboxing and Muay Thai world champion. He was often called "Mr. Low Kick" because of his feared low kicks which he used to set up his devastating offensive attacks. Biog ...

to move to

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

to train with him. There, he discovered

Thai boxing Muay Thai or Muaythai (, , ), sometimes referred to as Thai boxing, the Art of Eight Limbs or the Science of Eight Limbs, is a Thai martial art and full-contact combat sport that uses stand-up striking, sweeps, and various clinching technique ...

. Hooft began fighting professionally while coaching at the same time. He developed his own fighting system by combining the best of Thai boxing and Dutch kickboxing. He competed in more than 100 kickboxing fights. His most notable fight was against

Stefan Leko Stefan Leko (born June 3, 1974) is a German heavyweight kickboxer. He is the current WKA Super-Heavyweight world champion in kickboxing, and former Muay Thai world super-heavyweight champion and Kickboxing world super-heavyweight champion, WMT ...

at the K-1 Grand Prix '99, which he lost by knockout in the first round. In 2004, he joined Team Aerts as the sparring partner and trainer of three-time

K-1 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993 by karateka Kazuyoshi Ishii. Originally under the ownership of the Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), K-1 was considered to be the largest Kickboxing organization in the worl ...

champion

Peter Aerts Peter Aerts (born 25 October 1970) is a Dutch retired kickboxer. Known for his devastating high kicks, which earned him the nickname "The Dutch Lumberjack", he is widely considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight kickboxers of all time. B ...

, training out of Kops Gym in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

under

Jan Plas Jan Plas (16 March 19451 September 2010) was a Dutch professional kickboxer, trainer and founder of the Mejiro Gym in Amsterdam. He is considered to be the father of kickboxing in the Netherlands. Career Plas began his career in martial arts in ...

. In 2007, he retired from fighting and continued as a trainer. Among the fighters he trained was kickboxing world champion

Tyrone Spong Tyrone Clinton Spong (born 3 September 1985) is a Surinamese-Dutch professional boxer and mixed martial artist and former kickboxer. As a boxer, he held the WBC and WBO Latino heavyweight titles in 2018. In kickboxing, he is the former WFCA c ...

. In 2011, Hooft joined the

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

gym the

in Florida, after he was brought in by Tyrone Spong, who was invited by

Rashad Evans Rashad Evans (born September 25, 1979) is an American retired mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist who competed in the Light Heavyweight (MMA), Light Heavyweight division. Evans started his professional MMA career in 2003, and was the Heavyw ...

to train with him. There, he went on to become the head stand-up coach. In 2017, he founded his own gym Combat Club, later rebranded as Kill Cliff FC. Hooft trained top contenders such as Rashad Evans,

Vitor Belfort Vítor Vieira Belfort (; born 1 April 1977) is a Brazilian professional boxer and retired mixed martial artist who competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he fought in the Heavyweight, Light Heavyweight, and Middleweight d ...

, Anthony Johnson, Michael Johnson,

Eddie Alvarez Edward Alvarez (born January 11, 1984) is an American professional Mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist and Bare-knuckle boxing, bare-knuckle boxer who most recently competed in the Welterweight division of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championsh ...

Kamaru Usman Kamarudeen Usman (born May 11, 1987) is a Nigerian-American professional mixed martial artist, former freestyle wrestler, and graduated folkstyle wrestler. He currently competes in the Welterweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championsh ...

Michael Chandler Michael Chandler Jr. (born April 24, 1986) is an American professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Lightweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Chandler previously competed for Bellator MMA from 2010 ...

Luke Rockhold Luke Skyler Rockhold (born October 17, 1984) is an American retired mixed martial artist who is currently signed with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship and Karate Combat. He formerly competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (U ...

Gilbert Burns Gilbert Alexander Pontes Burns (born 20 July 1986) is a Brazilian professional Mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist and Submission grappling, submission grappler. He currently competes in the Welterweight (MMA), Welterweight division of th ...

and Shavkat Rakhmonov.

Fight record

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Gökhan Saki Gökhan Saki (born 18 October 1983Schiedam Schiedam () is a large town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands. It is located in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, west of the city Rotterdam, east of the town Vlaardingen and south of the city Delft. In the south, Schi ...

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Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, , TKO (retirement) , , , , , - , - bgcolor="FFBBBB" , 2003-06-04 , , Loss , , align=left, Samir Benazzouz , ,

K-1 World Grand Prix 2003 Preliminary Holland This is a list of events held and scheduled by the K-1, a Japanese kickboxing promotion. The first event, K-1 Sanctuary I, took place on March 30, 1993, at Kōrakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Since its inception, K-1 events were organized by the Fi ...

, ,

Zoetermeer Zoetermeer () is a city in the Western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. A small village until the late 1960s, it had 6,392 inhabitants in 1950. By 2023 this had grown to 126.998 ...

, , Decision (majority) , , 3 , , 3:00 , - , - bgcolor="FFBBBB" , 2000-01-23 , , Loss , , align=left,

Alexey Ignashov Alexey Ignashov (; born 18 January 1978) is a Belarusian former Heavyweight kickboxer. He is a four-time Muay Thai World champion, K-1 World GP 2003 in Paris and K-1 World GP 2001 in Nagoya tournament champion. As of 2011 he is living in Aucklan ...

, , Day of No Mercy , ,

Rotterdam, Netherlands Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the New Meuse inland shi ...

, , Decision , , 5 , , 3:00 , - , - bgcolor="FFBBBB" , 1999-12-05 , , Loss , , align=left,

, , K-1 World Grand Prix 1999 , ,

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, , KO (right back kick) , , 1 , , 2:37 , - , - bgcolor="FFBBBB" , 1991 , , Loss , , align=left, Jan Lomulder, , , ,

, , KO , , 3 , , , - , colspan=9 , ''Legend'':

References

External links

Official websiteK-1 Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hooft, Henri 1969 births Living people Dutch male kickboxers Heavyweight kickboxers Kickboxing trainers Martial arts school founders Mixed martial arts trainers Martial artists from The Hague 20th-century Dutch sportsmen