Jamal Ben Saddik was once one of the world’s top kickboxers but he is now facing a long spell behind bars over a brutal kidnapping at gunpoint
A kickboxing legend has been jailed for four years for his role in the brutal kidnapping of a dockworker.
Jamal Ben Saddik is a former two-time Glory Heavyweight Championship challenger and 2018 Glory Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament winner. ‘The Goliath’ was ranked as a top 10 heavyweight between September 2015 and July 2021, peaking at No. 3.
But his once high flying career has gone off the rails with a series of controversies and he was hit with the toughest sentence of a group of defendants on trial after months of legal turmoil, with a court branding him the ringleader of a gang that struck in Antwerp, Belgium.
The 35-year-old Belgian Moroccan heavyweight was tied to a plot in which a dockworker was forced into a car at gunpoint. Reports say the kidnapping was meant to pressure the victim into helping smugglers move cocaine shipments through the port.
The victim refused to cooperate and was later freed after his sister alerted police, as reported by NeedToKnow. During the ordeal, the dockworker’s home was raided and ransacked, ramping up the severity of the charges.
Investigators concluded the operation was linked to drug trafficking. On Tuesday (December 9), Saddik was sentenced at Antwerp court to four years behind bars. Three other defendants were handed prison terms ranging from 30 months to four years.
The fighter maintains he has done nothing wrong, accusing the court of painting a misleading picture of him. A spokesperson for Saddik said the conviction was based on “a single statement without any supporting evidence”.
Through his spokesperson, he told vechtsportinfo: “I am extremely shocked and disappointed by the court’s ruling. I have been convicted on the basis of a single statement without any supporting evidence.
“I am innocent and am being framed in a way that does not reflect who I am. My lawyer will file an appeal on my behalf.”
He also called the court’s assessment of him as the leader “completely unjustified”.
It is not his first run in with the law. In June he received a 40-month prison sentence, half suspended, for money laundering.
Kickboxing organisation Glory previously banned him for six months after he kicked Rico Verhoeven following a bout with Nabil Khachab. And Saddik has also been repeatedly suspended in the past for doping.