Thom Harinck: "Raul Catinas can be as good as Peter Aerts."

Wednesday, 11 July 2012 22:01

Written by Rian Scalia

SuperKombat held another great event on Saturday and one of the highlights of the show was Raul Catinas winning again, stopping Domogoj Ostojic in the first round. Catinas has looked great and much improved since his return to kickboxing, and a lot of credit should be given to Thom Harinck of the Chakuriki Gym for the career rejuvenation of Catinas.

Our friends at luptatorii.ro spoke with the legendary trainer about Raul Catinas, and Harinck had some very positive things to say. He had this to say about Catinas' future:

"If it continues like this, Raul will become a true monster in the ring. But we will have to take care of him a lot because many people in this time of glory will come close. Some will entice him with money and may deviate him from the path of performance. We will form a circle around it. I think his career will end up being like Peter Aerts. We can say now that Raul Catinas is becoming one of the greatest fighters in history."

Harinck first saw Catinas when he fought Mighty Mo back in 2010 at the K-1 Final 16 in Seoul and was still impressed with him despite losing. He explained how he turned Catinas around as a fighter: 

"He is young, and like all young people, often trying to KO his opponent. I explained that a KO comes when you don't have to force it. Raul has a "fighter heart," not afraid of anything. It should still work. For example, when he came to me, he hardly used kicks and had no anticipation that I tried to teach all my students, to hit a little longer but if you already had learned and developed a sense of anticipation. A fighter is like bread, nothing if all the necessary ingredients aren't used properly."

Check out the rest of the interview here.

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