Henri Hooft, also known as Harry Hooft (born May 21, 1969), is a Dutch former kickboxer and trainer. He is the head trainer at

Kill Cliff FC Kill Cliff FC, officially known as Kill Cliff Fight Club (formerly known as Sanford MMA, Hard Knocks 365 and Combat Club) is a mixed martial arts gym based in Deerfield Beach, Florida. It was originally founded in 2017 by Henri Hooft and Greg J ...

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 ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. 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 of k ...

, 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 Rob "The Dutchman" Kaman (born 5 June 1960) is a Dutch retired 9-time kickboxing and Muay Thai world champion. He is often called "Mr. Low Kick" because of his feared low kicks which he used to set up his devastating offensive attacks. Biogr ...

to move to

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

to train with him. There, he discovered

Thai boxing Muay Thai ( th, มวยไทย, , ), sometimes referred to as Thai boxing, is a combat sport that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. This discipline is known as the "art of eight limbs", as it is characterised ...

. 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 heavyweight champion and Kickboxing world super-heavyweight champion, WMTA, WKN, ...

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 champion

Peter Aerts Peter Aerts (born 25 October 1970) is a Dutch semi-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 ...

, training out of Kops Gym in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

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 i ...

. 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 cru ...

. In 2011, Hooft joined the

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, inc ...

gym the

in Florida, after he was brought in by Tyrone Spong to train him. There, he went on to become the head stand-up coach. In 2017, he founded his own gym Combat Club, later rebranded as

. Hooft trained top contenders such as

Rashad Evans Rashad Anton Evans (born September 25, 1979) is an American mixed martial artist. Evans started his professional career in 2003, he was the Heavyweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter 2 and is also a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, and a 2 ...

Vitor Belfort Vítor Vieira Belfort (; born 1 April 1977) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist who competes in the Heavyweight and Middleweight divisions. Belfort previously competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he fought in the Heavywe ...

, Anthony Johnson, Michael Johnson,

Eddie Alvarez Edward "Eddie" Alvarez (born January 11, 1984) is an American mixed martial artist who most recently competed in the Lightweight (170 lb) division of ONE Championship. He also formerly competed in the UFC and Bellator MMA, winning world titles ...

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

Jake Shields Jake Sequoyah Shields (born January 9, 1979) is an American mixed martial artist and submission grappler. He was the last Rumble on the Rock Welterweight Champion, the only Elite XC Welterweight Champion, a former Shooto Welterweight ...

Matt Mitrione Matthew Steven Mitrione (born July 15, 1978) is an American mixed martial artist and former American football player, who competed for both the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and most recently for Bellator MMA. Prior to embarking on an MM ...

Gilbert Burns Gilbert Alexander Pontes Burns (born 20 July 1986) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and submission grappler. He currently competes in the Welterweight division for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). As a grappler, Burns ...

and

Michael Chandler Michael Chandler (born April 24, 1986) is an American professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Lightweight division in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). A professional competitor since 2009, Chandler first gained n ...

. In late 2020, Hooft and Greg Jones were suspended for three months after they broke

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

protocols by leaving their hotel rooms while quarantining preceding Bellator 253.

Fight record

, - , - bgcolor="#FFBBBB" , 2007-02-17 , , Loss , , align=left,

Gökhan Saki Gökhan Saki (born 18 October 1983Schiedam,

, , KO (Left cross) , , 1 , , 1:14 , - , - bgcolor="#CCFFCC" , 2005-04-3 , , Win , , align=left, Tommy Varga , , Leo De Snoo Memorial 2005 , ,

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

, , TKO (retirement) , , , , , - , - bgcolor="FFBBBB" , 2003-06-04 , , Loss , , align=left, Samir Benazzouz , , K-1 World Grand Prix 2003 Preliminary Holland , ,

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 2013 this had grown to 123,328 ...

, , Decision (Majority) , , 3 , , 3:00 , - , - bgcolor="FFBBBB" , 2000-01-23 , , Loss , , align=left, Alexey Ignashov , , Day of No Mercy , ,

Rotterdam, Netherlands Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

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

, , K-1 World Grand Prix 1999 , ,

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, , 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 Sportspeople from The Hague