Daniel Ghiţă

Daniel Ghiţă
Born	April 22, 1981 (1981-04-22) (age 30) 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/
last updated on: March 7, 2011

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]

Personal life

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]

Biography and career

"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.

Titles

• 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 in Tokyo Final 16 Qualifying GP champion
• Local Kombat Heavyweight champion
• 2005 WKN European Thai-boxing Heavyweight champion
• 2002 European Muay Thai champion in Portugal
• 2001 IFMA World Muay Thai Championships Bronze medalist (+91 kg)
• 2000 European Muay Thai champion in Germany

Kickboxing record

Kickboxing record

39 Wins (29 (T) KO's), 7 Losses Date Result Opponent Event Location Method Round Time 2012-01-28 Hesdy Gerges It's Showtime in Leeuwarden Leeuwarden, Netherlands For It's Showtime World Heavyweight title. 2011-06-11 Win Erhan Deniz BFN Group presents: It's Showtime Warsaw Warsaw, Poland KO (Left Hook to the Body) 2 2011-05-14 Win Fikri Ameziane It's Showtime 2011 Lyon Lyon, France TKO (Ref Stop/Low Kicks/3 Knockdowns) 1 3:00 2011-03-06 Loss Hesdy Gerges It's Showtime Sporthallen Zuid Amsterdam, Netherlands Decision (5-0) 3 3:00 2010-12-11 Loss Gokhan Saki K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final, Quarter Finals Tokyo, Japan Decision (Ext. R) 4 3:00 2010-10-02 Win Errol Zimmerman K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 in Seoul Final 16 Seoul, Republic of Korea KO (Straight Right) 2 0:18 Qualifies for K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final. 2010-05-29 Loss Ashwin Balrak It's Showtime 2010 Amsterdam Amsterdam, Netherlands Decision (5-0) 3 3:00 2010-02-13 Win Dzevad Poturak It's Showtime 2010 Prague Prague, Czech Republic Decision (Unanimous) 3 3:00 2009-12-05 Win Sergei Kharitonov K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 Final Yokohama, Japan KO (Right low kick) 3 0:36 2009-09-26 Loss Semmy Schilt K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 Final 16 Seoul, Republic of Korea Decision (Unanimous) 3 3:00 2009-08-11 Win Sergei Lascenko K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 in Tokyo Final 16 Qualifying GP Tokyo, Japan KO (Right low kick) 1 2:19 Wins K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 Qualifying GP tournament title. 2009-08-11 Win Yuki K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 in Tokyo Final 16 Qualifying GP Tokyo, Japan KO (Right low kick) 1 1:28 2009-08-11 Win John Love K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 in Tokyo Final 16 Qualifying GP Tokyo, Japan KO (Left hook) 1 1:28 2009-05-16 Win Tomas Hron It's Showtime 2009 Amsterdam Amsterdam, Netherlands TKO (Ref. stop/Left low kicks) 2 2009-02-28 Win Igor Mihaljevic K-1 Rules Tournament 2009 in Budapest Budapest, Hungary KO (Low kicks) 1 0:30 2008-12-20 Loss Roman Kleibl K-1 Fighting Network Prague 2008 Prague, Czech Republic Decision (Ext. R) 4 3:00 2008-11-06 Loss Dzevad Poturak Local Kombat 31 Buzău, Romania Decision (Unanimous) 3 3:00 2008-06-06 Win Bjorn Bregy Local Kombat 30 Timişoara, Romania Decision (Unanimous) 3 3:00 2008-03-15 Win Freddy Kemayo Local Kombat 29 Arad, Romania KO (Left hook) 2 2:30 2007-12-14 Win Tadas Rimkevicius Local Kombat 28 "Invazia greilor" Braşov, Romania KO 2 2007-11-03 Win James Phillips Local Kombat 27 "Porţile de fier" Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Romania KO (Low kicks) 2 1:58 2007-05-04 Win Nobu Hayashi K-1 Fighting Network Romania 2007 Bucharest, Romania Decision (Unanimous) 3 3:00 2006-12-16 Win Gregory Tony Local Kombat 24 "Bataie în Giulesti" Bucharest, Romania KO (Right hook) 2 2:09 2006-09-29 Win Humberto Evora Local Kombat 22 Iași, Romania KO (Right high kick) 1 2:19 2006-06-02 Win Muhammet Ali Durmaz Local Kombat 21 Bacău, Romania TKO (Corner stop/low kicks) 2 1:03 2006-03-10 Loss Gregory Tony Local Kombat 19 "Înfruntarea titanilor" Iași, Romania KO (Right high kick) 1 2005-09-16 Win Brecht Wallis Local Kombat 16 "Liga Campionilor" Cluj-Napoca, Romania Decision (Unanimous) 3 3:00 2005-05-14 Win Mourad Bouzidi Local Kombat 14 "Lupta capitală" Bucharest, Romania Decision (Unanimous) 3 3:00 Wins WKN European title (Thaiboxing -96,600 kg) . 2005-02-11 Win Abel Jesus Local Kombat 12 "Fara mila" Cluj-Napoca, Romania TKO (Corner stoppage) 2 2004-10-22 Win Ivica Perkovic Local Kombat 10 "Arde Brăila" Brăila, Romania KO 3 2004-07-23 Win Florin Golopenta Local Kombat 8 "Duelul gigantilor" Galați, Romania TKO 3 2004-05-14 Win Anatoly Danilov Local Kombat 6 Galați, Romania TKO 3 2004-03-26 Win Tihamer Brunner Local Kombat 5 Braşov, Romania Decision (Unanimous) 3 3:00 2004-02-26 Win Nikola Jovanovic Local Kombat 4 Braşov, Romania TKO 2 Legend:       Win       Loss       Draw/No contest       Notes

See also

• List of K-1 events
• List of K-1 champions
• List of male kickboxers

References

1. ^ "K-1 Romania Bucureşti 4 mai". www.fight.ro. http://www.fight.ro/_new/?D=23. Retrieved 2009-03-06. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ An interview 2009-09-24(Japanese)
3. ^ http://www.fansofk1.com/article?aID=3566&Category=6
4. ^ Daniel Ghiţă Records Fastest K-1 Win Ever

External links

• Profile at K-1

Persondata
Name	Ghita, Daniel
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1981-04-22
Place of birth	Bucharest, Romania
Date of death
Place of death