1/2 Jelle Zeegers won his first game (photo: BKFC).
As a young boy he was bullied a lot and regularly beaten up. Jelle Zeegers saw martial arts as the chance to gain more confidence and even became a mixed martial arts (MMA) pro. The 30-year-old Tilburger has written history this weekend by being the first Dutchman to win a professional competition at the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC). That is boxing with bare fists. “I feel everything that I am going to become a superstar.”
His childhood in Tilburg-Noord was intense. Bullying behavior and assaults caused nightmares at Jelle. “I have been beaten up by guests several times, they kicked in on my head. In my dreams I saw shoes approaching me.”
His parents were against it, but Jelle decided to practice a martial arts. He turned out to be so talented that he was going to fight professional MMA competitions years later. That cost him almost his life in 2021. “During a competition, the arteries were pinched in my kidneys. I was almost bleeding internally while I was fighting. I made it, was in the hospital for a month and had to recover for a long time.”
He fought one more MMA competition and then said goodbye to the sport. “The doctors said I could never fight again, but I wanted to show the world that I could return. The risk for my kidneys became too great to do MMA more often. I have a daughter, you have to take that into account.”
It was certainly not time for Jelle to take it easy. He fell in love with Bare-Knuckle boxing, or boxing with bare fists. “The tension, the risk: it really appeals to me. I think my fists should be seen as hammers,” he says.
“Unfortunately, it is forbidden in the Netherlands.”
“They are old gladiator fights that have been given a new look. Through a professional organization and with doctors and medical tests, for example, it is a sport that is growing enormously. I want to go with that train, but unfortunately it is forbidden in the Netherlands,” says Jelle.
It took two years for the Tilburger to get his chance to fight a competition without gloves. “I was unlucky that seven times an opponent unsubscribed. I also approached other organizations to fight and was even open to take action between the hay bales. Nobody gave me a chance, but I always kept training hard.”
That changed when Jelle was called this week by a contact from Spain. “Whether I wanted to fight as a substitute in England in two days. It was now or never for me.”
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In the second round, Jelle won his match by knocking Toby Bindon knockout. “Beforehand I had visualized the evening in details: from the scent, atmosphere, the ropes that I felt to the tape around my hands. It all came out. It was an intense fight, a dream come true.”
Jelle probably doesn’t have to wait long for his next fight. The Colosseum in Rome or Verona are places that are mentioned as new competition locations. “Now they can no longer ignore me, I have put down a fantastic achievement. It is time for the Netherlands to take a place on the world stage of BKFC and I will take care of that.”
Jelle works in security, but preferably ‘Barbarious’ wants to buy fans a ticket for his competitions. He owes that nickname to friends from Rhodes who found his fighting style barbaric and notorious. “I hope that in the Netherlands I can provide more respect for martial arts and that the next generation sees me as a role model. From a small boy who was bullied to a professional who shows that anything is possible.”
