IRO European Champion 86

Just 24 years old, Belgaroui has marked himself out as a top prospect by way of exciting performances and crushing knockouts. At 6'6 he is tall for the division and particularly dangerous with his knees, which have scored him more than one KO.

“I came into Mike's Gym with a kind of kicking and kneeing style and Mike is more of a boxing guy so that was good for me, because it meant I was like a rough diamond that he just had to polish. I like Mike's style a lot,” says Belgaroui.

Mike's Gym is of course the Amsterdam institution headed by the veteran coach Mike Passenier, trainer of Badr Hari, Murthel Groenhart and more. The gym is a hive of activity right now. Hari has a fight with Rico Verhoeven in December and Groenhart is facing Nieky Holzken for the welterweight title, also at GLORY 34 DENVER.

“The atmosphere is great fight now. Everyone has got big fights coming up and we like to motivate each other, train with each other, spar hard with each other. We all spar together, yeah. Well, Badr right now is in Morocco but I spar regularly with Murthel,” he says.

Belgaroui says he was “good in school” but was also a little wild and that this drew him towards kickboxing. He trained for a little while before having his first fight in his teens and because he met with success, that inspired him to pursue it further.

He is Dutch, but of Tunisian parentage, same as light-heavyweight veteran Mourad Bouzidi.