Multiple world kickboxing champion Robbie Hageman (30) from Eindhoven no longer enters the ring for a farewell match. The tumor in his head won’t allow that. He will go under the knife next Tuesday. On Instagram, The Rabbit says goodbye to his fighting career.
“I have thought about this message for a long time and as you know me: I do not take back my words. It’s really done now!” he writes. The terminally ill Hageman trained for a year and a half for his farewell match on 8 January. It was canceled due to the corona restrictions.
Hageman became world champion twice before he was stricken with cancer. He was told in 2019 that he has a malignant tumor in the back of his head. The tumor was discovered accidentally during a mandatory MRI scan after he was knocked out during a kickboxing match.
The brain tumor was largely removed, but there was still a piece in his head that could grow.
And that happened. This summer he received bad news from his doctor: “The tumor is just as big as it was then.” After Tuesday’s surgery, he will start a course of chemotherapy. That will take a year and a half.
It takes six months for recovery after that. But Hageman sees it differently: “He doesn’t know me, does he?! I will be back at the gym one hundred percent within three weeks after the operation. Last time I was there after a week and a half. Now I give myself a little more rest. Most people take the doctor’s advice to rest. I immediately started walking in the hospital. I also had a lot of visitors. That is distracting.”
After the operation, Hageman will lose part of the vision in both eyes. The prospect is that he will have to report back to the hospital in a maximum of five years. “You’re screwed for two years and then you have one to three years left.”
Hageman continues militantly. “A normal person thinks you can’t exercise during chemotherapy. I think I can just exercise and do everything and train. I know one hundred percent that it can. I’m not into the bets, but if I I became rich. People don’t believe it until they see it. Last time I was able to go home after two days and I was in the gym after four days.”
The farewell match that could not take place in January due to corona measures was moved to May 21. But that is now completely gone. The last time he was in the ring, he lost. He writes about this on Instagram: “Like all great fighters: Holyfield, Mohammed Ali, Tyson and Ramon Dekkers, I end my career with a loss. Fortunately, it was at the highest level in a sold-out Ahoy at the time (November 2018).
While Hageman knew that the tumor had grown again, he took part in the television program ‘Kamp van Koningsbrugge’. He was trained in it as happens with the commandos.
Each week can now be seen how he is mentally and physically exhausted. Despite his illness, Hageman is holding up well in the program. He was already hardened as a 12-year-old man: “In a specific training in the past, we were caned for an hour. You never forget something like that.”
Hageman sees his participation in ‘Kamp van Koningsbrugge’ as the farewell to his fighter career.
Hageman does not hide his belief in God. The kickboxer goes to churches to preach. “All these things have made me what I am today. A family man that puts God first. With principles, norms and values. Respect for the elderly and infirm. I am always positive. Everything happens with a reason. It will have to be.”