Badr Hari will return from pseudo-retirement during Glory 88, which will take place on September 9th in Paris, France. He will fight the 42 year old English veteran James McSweeney, who has so far fought only one fight in Glory.

May Badr Hari win from McSweeney, he will qualify for the Glory Grand Prix, the newly minted 8-man tournament which is set for december this year and aims to bring back the grandeur of the K-1 days.

Hari's last fight was in October 2022, against MMA and fellow K-1 veteran Alistair Overeem. He made his Glory debut that night and defeated Hari after scoring two knockdowns, securing an unanimous decision. Immediately following the fight, Badr Hari announced to the audience he's been seriously considering retirement. Now it's clear that's not yet the case.

Badr Hari, 38, is born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, though fights under the Moroccan flag. His record is legendary, with a notable 92 knockouts out of 106 wins. His fame dates back to the K-1 era in Japan, during which many Dutch-born stars such as Peter Aerts, Sem Schildt, Ernesto Hoost and Remy Bonjasky rose to the top. Badr Hari was relatively young back then, but earned his position amongst the greats and counts as Glory's biggest pull factor right now.

Considering Hari's amazing fight record with an overall 86% win rate, it's been surprising to many that he was unable to win a fight since 2015. He fought seven matches for Glory, of which 4 count as official losses and three ended up being no contests for various reasons. To be fair he did win from Gerges but tested positive for doping later. He lost from Overeem, but afterwards Overeem tested positive for doping as well.

Outside the ring Hari is notorious for being found guilty in 2014 of several assault charges, leading to one and a half year of prison time. These facts will haunt him and tarnish his reputation forever. However, since that time he appears to have rehabilitated, has a family and is working hard to revitalize his kickboxing career.