Two masters of the fight game, and as we know (now) both world champions. This fight from 1996, is probably less known than the fight the year after, when the met in the final of the 1st World Cup (World Championship in weight categories) The fight we got now is the semifinal of the 28th All Japan Open..
First fight of the second day in the 10th World Karate Championship. (4th round) Valeri Dimitrov /Bulgaria vs Nazar Nasirov / Russia. All knew the capacity of Dimitrov, and one could assume the favorite mark glowing on Dimitrov’s back, but rumors of the young Russian fighter, and his high level had begun to reach all supporters of full contact Karate.
A trip back to 2007, and the 9th World Open Championship. At the second day of the tournament, Dimitrov and Gudauskas face each other. Valeri Dimitrov with victories over Jimme Collin / Sweden, Zsolt Balogh / Hungary earlier this day, as Gudauskas recently had a notable win over reign World Champion Suzuki / Japan, and before that Aristotelis Melikiadis / Greece.
European Championship in Denmark, 1999. At this time the EC had only three categories in the men division – and these fights are from the heaviest category. We can also give you Allahverdi Rustamov (Azerbaijan) vs Niklas Ollvid (Sweden) The Swede made it to the top 16 later same year in the world championship.
Popova entered the European Championship podium back in 2017, 3.place in a very hard category. 2018 – the first EC tittle is a fact – in the open-weight category. No one can match Deleva’s incredible drive and intensity. -not the year after either, EC weight category tittle after a win in the final against Magdalena Gustaitytė. Representing Bulgaria in the 12th World Championship in 2019. EC champion 2021, 3rd place in the World Championship in weight categories and winning the EC Open Weight in 2022, and with that qualifies once again to the world championship in 2023
The 3rd place play off in the 9th World Championship was a very interesting set up. Both fighters with significant wins during the tournament, both strong profiles winning their top tournament of their region in front. Dimitrov with his EC victory against Eduard Janoashvili in Lithuania, as Nesterenko became the champion of the Russian Open-weight,defeating top fighter Denis Grigoriev the year before.
In 2007, at the 9th World Karate Championship two of the very best European fighters faced each other in the quarter final. Gergana Atanasova (Bulgaria) and Edit Ábrahám (Hungary) Both “always” to see at the EC podium – like in 2007, both in the EC final, Ábrahám in middleweight and Atanasova in heavyweight.
The 9th World Championship Shinkyokushin 2007 – Valeri Dimitrov, Bulgaria and Zsolt Balogh, Hungary face each other in their 4th fight of the tournament. Both had notable wins, and being young up and coming fighters, they did make a great impression. Although Dimitrov was the favorite, the fight shows greats skills and technical variations – a key to their success.
Two World Champions, and two highly merited top fighters. To be correct, when this fights was fought, in 2016 and 2014 – Juri Minamihara was not World Champion – yet. “Only” runner up in the 11th World Championship held in 2015. Later on Minamihara took the World tittle in the weight category in 2017 (middleweight), and in the Open Weight World Championship in 2019. As for Emi Shoguchi, World Champion in 2011, and world champion in weight category 2017 (Super heavyweight) And for both, this is only some of their high merits packed record.
European Championship – Open weight in 2013, held in Oradea, Romania. Open-weight will always be interesting since we get fights across the regular weight-categories. That was the case in the final, where Marius Ilas (Romania) fought Antanas Klibavicius (Lithuania) We will look into the quarterfinal: Maciej Mazur (Poland) vs Jimmie Collin (Sweden)
