Rutz's It's Showtime team. After a few months' training at the Mejiro Gym he returned to Harinck's, but left again a couple of weeks later. Since then he has been coached by Mike Passenier, who has also trained Joerie Mes, Bjorn Bregy and Melvin Manhoef. Road to K-1 Hari's road to fame began with a pair of matches against Stefan Leko in 2005. The first took place at an It's Showtime 2005 event in June 2005. Hari had started trash talk between him and his opponent before the fight but Hari's unusually long ring entrance ended up being longer than the fight itself, where Hari was knocked out by Leko's trademark spinning back kick. Hari got his opportunity for revenge in November 2005 when he entered the K-1 World Grand Prix 2005 tournament as a reserve fighter against Leko, making his K-1 World GP debut at the age of 20. Hari knocked out Leko by a spinning back high kick to the jaw at 1:30 in the second round. After the bad blood between both fighters, Hari helped his opponent up and escorted the dazed German to the corner. K-1 New Zealand 2006 In 2006 Badr Hari was scheduled to participate in the K-1 World Grand Prix 2006 in Amsterdam on 13 May 2006, but fought in the K-1 World Grand Prix 2006 in Auckland, in New Zealand, instead as a last minute replacement. His opponent in the first round was Australian Peter "The Chief" Graham. Hari once again showed his bad boy reputation by abusing Graham and starting a street fight at the press conference. In the actual fight Hari was knocked out by Graham's trademark "Rolling Thunder". The heel hit Hari hard on the head and knocked him out cold. Graham's kick broke Hari's jaw in multiple places and sidelined Hari for twelve months. Return to K-1 Hari returned to the ring at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2006 Final Elimination in Osaka, Japan against Ruslan Karaev. Karaev hurt Badr with a straight right that left Hari slouching over in the corner, then Karaev delivered a kick to Hari's face: Hari was counted out by the referee but immediately he and his corner protested, claiming the kick was a foul. When the referee did not respond, Hari and his corner men caused a commotion and refused to leave the ring until they were escorted out by K-1 officials.