Crowd riot forces cancelation of Badr Hari fight and GLORY 80 main event (video)

A riot that broke out in the crowd and got out of control during the Badr Hari fight at GLORY 80 caused the event to finish earlier than planned

In a first for GLORY Kickboxing, an event had to be canceled midway through the card as a result of a riot that broke out inside the arena.

GLORY 80, which took place at the Trixxo Arena in Hasselt, Belgium, lost its final two fights after chaos erupted in the crowd, and brought its way toward the ring, during the co-main event that featured Badr Hari, one of kickboxing’s most popular and controversial figures.

Hari was taking on Arkadiusz Wrzosek in the evening’s co-main event. The second round saw Wrzosek drop Hari with a flying knee.

“GLORY deeply regrets that GLORY80 was interrupted by people exhibiting unsafe behavior,” the promotion wrote in a statement on Saturday. “We never condone or accept behavior that endangers other fans that come to our events to enjoy a night of top sport. Upon the request of the police in the city of Hasselt, we stopped the event after the 2nd round of Hari – Wrzosek. We apologize to the fans who did not get to see the end of this bout and the Ben Saddik – Rigters matchup. Also to the athletes who trained so hard and did not get to compete. Martial arts is a sport of respect and fair competition inside and outside of the ring.”

Mid-match crowd riot ends Badr Hari fight, forces cancelation of GLORY 80 main event

https://twitter.com/FTB_VIDS/status/1505293602443853828

The crowd then disrupted into a frenzy that forced the fight to be delayed for a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, things didn’t calm down, and despite pleas from Wrzosek and Melvin Manhoef for the crowd to stop, it actually continued to get worse.

Brawls broke out among fans, some of whom started to descend toward the ring, with no sense of calmness anywhere in the arena. Chairs and bottles were being thrown all over the place.

The crowd riots forced the Hari-Wrzosek bout to be ended and declared a no-contest due to security reasons. In fact, the frenzy caused commentators Todd Grisham and Joe Valtellini to be forced to abandon their positions.

The GLORY 80 feed at home was cut, and in what seemed like an inevitability, the scheduled GLORY 80 main event between Jamal Ben Saddik and Levi Ritgers was canceled, bringing the event to an early, and unfortunate, conclusion.

It is unclear if the riot was caused simply by Hari getting knocked down, or if there was anything additional in the crowd that started the frenzy.