Henri Hooft

Hooft was born and raised in The Hague, Netherlands. At the age of 15, he became interested in combat sports. He started training with his brother in full contact Karate, 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 to move to Thailand to train with him. There, he discovered Thai boxing.^[1][2]

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.^[1][2] His most notable fight was against Stefan Leko 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, training out of Kops Gym in Amsterdam under Jan Plas.^[3] In 2007, he retired from fighting and continued as a trainer. Among the fighters he trained was kickboxing world champion Tyrone Spong.^[2]

In 2011, Hooft joined the mixed martial arts gym the Blackzilians in Florida, after he was brought in by Tyrone Spong, who was invited by Rashad Evans to train with him. There, he went on to become the head stand-up coach.^[4] In 2017, he founded his own gym Combat Club, later rebranded as Kill Cliff FC.^[5] Hooft trained top contenders such as Rashad Evans, Vitor Belfort, Anthony Johnson, Michael Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, Kamaru Usman, Michael Chandler, Luke Rockhold, Gilbert Burns and Shavkat Rakhmonov.^[4]