Two of the toughest heavyweight fighters out of Europe, for the most of us no introduction needed. But some may wonder, and these two fighters challenged the very best in the world. Reaching top 4 six times in World Championships Open and with weight categories. What happen when they fought each other?
Back in 1991 these two fighters fought each other in a five single match event. Two profiled strong fighters who had similar path in their fighting-life, going trough Karate, into other styles as K-1 and MMA. This fight was held in 1991 – Karate Fullcontact – and a classic battle between strength and technique – top spirit crowning it all.
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..
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.
Deleva entered the European Championship podium back in 2017, 3.place in a very hard category. Working hers way upward in the European Championships, into the 2nd place the year after – and later same year, 2018 – the first EC tittle is a fact – in the open-weight category. Beating the reign champion Inga Mikštaitė in the final, revenges her loss from EC weight category same year om her way, securing a win against Monika Zielińska. 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
The 3rd round of The 20th All Japan Open was intense and dramatic. Hiroki Kurosawa met Satoshi Yoshioka. With 3 Wazaries in the same fight, one can understand that the fight was more than exciting – and a little unusual. With the knock out expert Kurosawa on the tatami, wazari’s was not a rare thing – but who scored one and who scored two, and took the victory in this fight?
A look back at the 3rd World Cup from 2005, held in June 18th & 19th, Osaka, Japan, 2005. Unfortunately, the video only contains fights from the men’s matches. As usual w want to give you a little more than only the video – so we dived into the archive and found the DRAWS for the tournament also. The results are of course well known – and discussed by fans i many years, but to see the level of the fighters from this tournament – that’s interesting!
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.
