24 fighters from 17 countries, and, as usual, a crew of kickboxing legends such as Semmy Schilt, Ernesto Hoost, Andy Sower and Albert Kraus, serving as officials, set the stage for SENSHI 23 on Saturday, Sep. 7 in “The Pearl of the Black Sea” Varna, Bulgaria.
The main event will be the return of Atanas Bozhilov. Also known as “Nakata,” he is the record holder for victories in the SENSHI ring, having triumphed in 19 out of 21 fights. This time, he is looking for revenge after losing his European SENSHI belt in the fight against Samo Petje due to a medical stoppage due to a large cut. Bozhilov has an impressive list of titles in his fighting career, including WAKO PRO World Champion in the K-1 category in 2019 and WAKO World Cup Champion in 2017. He is currently training intensively in Japan, together with the team of another SENSHI star, Dragomir Petrov. At SENSHI 23, he will face the African-Spanish Jaiteh Ndow Bubu in the –75 kg division. Bubu is a three-time Spanish Muay Thai national champion.
The co-main event will be a bout in the heavyweight division with the Romanian Marius Munteanu and the Brazilian Bruno Muhammad Chaves. Munteanu is a longtime DFS veteran and has several notable titles in his career – Colosseum tournament champion, Kombat London, Fight Zine and Cezar Fighting Championship. On the other hand, Chaves is a former GLORY Kickboxing and ONE Championship fighter with a record of 18-1 in Muay Thai and 25-3-1 with 12 knockouts in kickboxing. He is also an undefeated pro boxer with a record of 8-0.
“The Second Round Killer,” Serbian Heavyweight Rade Opacic, seems to have finally left ONE for SENSHI. In the Singapore-based promotion, he holds the records of most knockouts in ONE Super Series (5) and of most wins in the Super Series Heavyweight Division (7). Opacic holds notable wins over Errol Zimmerman, Ondřej Hutník, Iraj Azizpour, Ionuț Iancu, Guto Inocente, and Giannis Stoforidis. This time, his opponent will be “The Romanian Gladiator” Cristian Ristea, a 32-year-old fighter with experience in GLORY, KOK, DFS and SuperKombat.
Fans should also pay attention to the Italian Michale Samperi, who will have his promotional debut facing a SENSHI veteran, the Portugal-based Ukrainian Dmytro Hlevka, an ISKA European Muay Thai champion, amateur Iberian Muay Thai champion and Golden League champion. Samperi was WMO and WKA Muay Thai and kickboxing world champion as an amateur, and, as a pro, won a WKA K-1 world title, an IKO K-1 European belt, the AFSO Intercontinental K-1 title and the WBC Mediterranean Muay Thai belt. He is 30–2 with 17 knockouts and is coming from a spectacular knockout victory in France at LE CHOC DES GLADIATEURS XXII versus the American GLORY, DFS and Muay Thai GP veteran Omar Moreno.
In Varna, we will also see an MMA bout (SENSHI rules) in the –70 kg division with the Bulgarian Delyan Georgiev, who impressed the audience in the previous edition of the combat gala, with a stunning knockout in his match against Brazilian Lucas Tenorio. Georgiev remains undefeated so far and scored achievements such as being a two-time IMMAF World Champion for amateurs in 2017 and 2018, and IMMAF European Champion for amateurs in 2017. This time, he will face another Brazilian, Lucas Lima of the Francisco Filho Team, who is 3-0 as a pro in Brazilian events with 3 submissions.
The Muay Thai French superstar Gregoire Gottardi, a two-time ISKA and WCTS European champion, and a veteran of the top French events and of the Thailand rings, will make his third appearance in the SENSHI arena, after the previous two times walking away with championship belts from the circuit. This time, he will face the British Nak Muay Luke “Skywalker” Whelan, who holds 57 career victories with four belts, including IKF World Champion, FIBA World Champion, and a two-time KGP World Champion.
Marian Lapusneanu from Romania will again show viewers what lies beneath his meek exterior. The winner of the Colosseum tournaments in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 is the kickboxing champion of Romania and the winner of the DFS title in 2023. His opponent will be Polish veteran Mateusz Janik
The world and European Kyokushin champion, but also silver medalist at the European amateur junior boxing championship, Bulgarian Kristiyan Doychev, will face Valentinos Kiriakidis from Greece
SENSHI 23 FIGHT CARD
Fight #1
Cat. -70 kg, ruleset: KWU Full Contact*
Marian Lapusneanu, Romania vs Mateusz Janik, Poland
Fight #2
Cat. -70 kg, ruleset: KWU Full Contact
Gregoire Gottardi, France vs Luke Whelan, England
Fight #3
Cat. -70 kg, ruleset: KWU SENSHI *
Walter Christopher, France vs Nicolas Sanabria, Colombia
Fight #4
Cat. -85 kg, ruleset: KWU Full Contact
Kristiyan Doychev, Bulgaria vs Valentinos Kiriakidis, Greece
Fight #5
Cat. -70 kg, ruleset: KWU OPEN***
Delyan Georgiev, Bulgaria vs Lucas Lima, Brazil
Fight #6
Cat. -80 kg, ruleset: KWU Full Contact
Michael Samperi, Italy vs Dmytro Hlevka, Portugal
Fight #7
Cat. -85 kg, ruleset: KWU Full Contact
Aleksandar Menkovic, Serbia vs Loic Njeya, Switzerland
Fight #8
Cat. -95 kg, ruleset: KWU Full Contact
Massinissa Hamaili, Algeria vs Karim Mabrouk, Austria
Fight #9
Cat. -95 kg, ruleset: KWU Full Contact
Abdelilah Azzouzi, Morocco vs Fabrice Gnedre, Ivory Coast
Fight #10
Cat. 95+ kg, ruleset: KWU Full Contact
Rade Opacic, Serbia vs Cristian Ristea, Romania
Fight #11 CO-MAIN EVENT
Cat. 95+ kg, ruleset: KWU Full Contact
Marius Munteanu, Romania vs Bruno Chaves, Brazil
Fight #12 MAIN EVENT
Cat. -75 kg, ruleset: KWU Full Contact
Atanas Bozhilov, Bulgaria vs Jaiteh Ndow Bubu, Spain
* Allowed: All boxing hits, spinning back fists are allowed; all kicks; one knee hit to the head after grasping with two hands; clinch, one technique and let go; sweeps; grip and kick without pulling or pushing the opponent.
**Allowed: All boxing techniques incl. spinning back fist and elbow strikes; all kicking techniques; active clinching; grab and attack, sweeps and throws.
***Allowed: All boxing hits allowed; spinning back fist; all kicks; clinch up to 10 seconds; sweeps; grip and kick; throws; groundwork twice for 30 seconds per round; stranglehold on the ground; submissions on the ground (legs only on the Achilles, without twisting the ankle and knee joint); hit with hands and knees only in the body on the ground.
The media partners of SENSHI 23 are Boec.BG and Boec.COM, Bulgaria ON AIR, MAX Sport, the American online combat sports television TrillerTV, Dir.bg, YouTube channel KOD Sport, Kwunion.com, Kyokushin Karate News, Fighto.News and Novinata.bg.