| Daniel Ghiţă | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 22, 1981 Bucharest, Romania |
| Other names | The Savage Samurai |
| Nationality | Romanian |
| Height | 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) |
| Weight | 110 kg (240 lb; 17 st) |
| Division | Super Heavyweight |
| Style | Kickboxing, Muay Thai |
| Team | Kamakura Gym |
| Trainer | Anil Dubar |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Kickboxing record | |
| Total | 46 |
| Wins | 39 |
| By knockout | 29 |
| Losses | 7 |
| By knockout | 1 |
| Other information | |
| Website | http://www.danielghita.ro/ |
|
|
|
Daniel Ghiţă (born April 22, 1981) is a Romanian super heavyweight kickboxer. He is a former WKN European Muaythai champion, currently competing in the K-1, It's Showtime and Local Kombat promotions. He made his K-1 debut at K-1 Fighting Network Romania 2007 against Nobu Hayashi.[1]
Aside from kickboxing, from 2001 to 2008, Ghiţă was a secret service (SPP) agent assigned to protect the Romanian President.[2]
Contents |
Ghiţă has a kid with his current girlfriend but he is not married. He stated he would like to marry her and would quit fighting to pursue a more normal family life. He went on to say that he would retire if he did not end up the victory of the K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final. However, he was persuaded to continue fighting by his trainer, Anil Dubar. He is thankful for this, along with kickboxing fans the world over, as he has continued to improve his fighting abilities and has become widely regarded as one of the top five Superheavyweight kickboxing fighters in the world. Ghiţă has also stated that as soon as he wins a K-1 World Grand Prix Final, he will retire. His mother gave an interview where she stated that he was a very naughty child growing up, and she had to punish him extensively. Ghiţă has also had a longstanding rivalry with fellow Romanian fighter Cătălin Moroşanu. After winning the K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 in Tokyo Final 16 Qualifying GP in Tokyo, he declared that he is the best fighter in the entire country of Romania. Moroşanu said he does not agree, and that he could beat Ghiţă easily. Daniel Ghiţă then said that he is not interested in having a match with Moroşanu, saying : "Moroşanu is not on my level!" [3]
"The Savage Samurai" made his debut in the World Muay Thai Championships in 1999 in Bangkok, Thailand. Daniel won all his matches by knockout before the semifinal, where he lost against Alexey Ignashov by one round (the only match the Belarusian won by decision and not KO).
Ghiţă's career continued with outstanding performances: European Muay Thai champion in Germany in 2000, bronze medal at the World Muay Thai Championships in Thailand in 2001 and European Muay Thai runner-up in Portugal in 2002. In 2003, he recorded the fastest KO at the World Muay Thai Championships in Thailand, 30 seconds against an Australian fighter.
In 2004, Ghiţă entered the Local Kombat fighting circuit in Romania. His good record there gave him the opportunity to fight also in the K-1 fighting circuit. His K-1 debut was in 2007 at K-1 Fighting Network Romania 2007 against Nobu Hayashi.
On August 11, 2009, Ghiţă broke Peter Aerts' record of fastest K-1 tournament win by defeating all three of his opponents in a total of 5 minutes and 15 seconds. Peter Aerts' record at that time was 6:43 and stood for 10 years before Ghiţă's milestone, however, Aerts' record was set at a K-1 Grand Prix Final Round, whereas Ghiţă's record was set in a qualifying GP.[4]
In October 2010, Daniel Ghiţă became the first Romanian fighter to qualify for the K-1 World Grand Prix Final in Tokyo, defeating Errol Zimmerman by KO in the last qualifying tournament in Seoul.
At the tournament he fought Gokhan Saki in the quarterfinals. He however turned up to the fight with a injury to his leg and it showed in the fight as he was unable to dictate the pace of the fight at all. He managed to get a extra round after it seemed Saki had already won. He started to get more tired in the round and lost by decision.
On March 6, 2011, Daniel Ghiţă faced the Chakuriki fighter Hesdy Gerges and the current It's Showtime Heavyweight champion in Amsterdam. Ghiţă was a slight underdog as Gerges almost beat Semmy Schilt the previous year and gave Badr Hari trouble in their fight. Though from the first round Ghiţă scored more effective shots, until the second round where a knee that skimmed his groin was ruled an 8 count. Ghiţă dominated the third round throughout but lost by unanimous decision. However it was only because of the wrong 8 count which, if it had not been counted, then an extra round would have been held, where many people thought Ghiţă would have won.
Ghita was scheduled to face Polish-Australian fighter Paul Slowinski at the It's Showtime 2011 Lyon, but his opponent pulled out and was replaced by Fikri Ameziane. As expected the fight was one-sided for one round, with Ghita beating his opponent with ease in the first round.
| Kickboxing record | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
39 Wins (29 (T) KO's), 7 Losses
Legend: Win Loss Draw/No contest Notes |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||