Daniel Ghiță

Biography

Ghiţă was born on April 22, 1981. Aside from kickboxing, from 2001 to 2008, Ghiţă worked as a (SPP) agent assigned to protect the Romanian President.

Early 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.

K-1 debut

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.

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 an 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 an extra round after it seemed Saki had already won. He started to get more tired in the round and lost by decision.

First world title shot

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.

Ghiţă 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 Ghiţă beating his opponent with ease in the first round.

It's Showtime World title win

On January 28, 2012 at It's Showtime in Leeuwarden, Ghiţă rematched Hesdy Gerges for the It's Showtime Heavyweight World title. After backing up Gerges to the neutral corner in the first round he knocked Hesdy out with a left hook and won his biggest world title to date in the process.

On 10 March 2012, it was Sergei Lascenko's turn to lose to the Savage Samurai via third round TKO (head kick) at Mirko Filipović's Final Fight in Zagreb, Croatia.

On May 12, the Romanian beat Brian Douwes at It's Showtime 56 in the second round (2:16) by KO with a single counter left hook. His strong punch sent the Dutchman to the canvas thus adding another highlight reel KO win to his record.

At the It's Showtime 2012 Brussels, he scored his 7th straight win by KO with a 2nd round liver kick of his Bosnian opponent on Dževad Poturak. In his previous fight at the K-1 World Grand Prix in Madrid, Ghiţă battered a brave Wendell Roche until his corner threw in the towel in round two.

Although he was expected to fight in the 2012 K-1 World Grand Prix, Daniel was shockingly left out of the tournament.

Glory World Series

Ghiţă then signed with rival promotion Glory and currently the biggest kickboxing organisation in the world in October 2012.

He was set to face Fabiano Cyclone in the first round of the 2012 Glory Heavyweight Grand Slam at Glory 4: Tokyo - 2012 Heavyweight Grand Slam in Saitama, Japan on December 31, 2012. However, Cyclone pulled out of the bout and was replaced by fellow countryman Jhonata Diniz. He defeated Diniz by unanimous decision after two, two-minute rounds due to the tournament's "best of three" format and advanced to the quarter-finals to face Mourad Bouzidi. After a close opening round, Ghiţă stopped Bouzidi with a kick which injured his arm in the second. In the semis, he came upainst the surprise package of the tournament, Jamal Ben Saddik, and dispatched of him within seconds, sending the big Moroccan with a single kick to the body. A highly anticipated rematch with the legendary Semmy Schilt awaited him in the final and, after a slow start to the three-minute first round, the giant Dutchman sent Ghiţă to the canvas with a left high kick. Despite seemingly recovering from the blow, referee Joop Ubeda controversially called a halt to the contest, giving Schilt the TKO win. He received a $100,000 check as the runner up on the tournament.

Ghiţă rematched Gökhan Saki at Glory 6: Istanbul in Istanbul, Turkey on April 6, 2013 in a #1 contender's bout for the Glory Heavyweight Championship held by Semmy Schilt. The fight started out a little rough, as Saki caught a kick from the Romanian. He then backed Ghiţă up and threw him to the mat with a sweep. Ghiţă landed hard, looking to have suffered an arm injury. According to Glory's official rules, leg sweeps and trips are illegal moves and should thusly be counted as such. Instead, referee Joop Ubeda counted it as a down as Ghiţă took a while to get to his feet. Even though injured, round two saw again Ghiţă being more consistent but midway through the round, the Turk began landing heavy punches on him and simply did not let up, dropping the Romanian thrice to take a win via TKO after the referee stepped in, calling the fight.

He halted his two-fight losing streak with a first round knockout of Brice Guidon at Glory 9: New York - 2013 95kg Slam in New York City, New York, USA on June 22, 2013. He hurt Guidon with kicks and punches to the body, forcing him into the corner. As the Frenchman covered up, Ghiță waited for his opportunity and ended the fight with a crushing left hook when Guidon tried to punch his way out.

In the semi-finals of Glory 11: Chicago - Heavyweight World Championship Tournament in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States in October 2013, Ghiță stopped Anderson "Braddock" Silva with a first round body kick. Meeting Rico Verhoeven in the final, he suffered an upset loss as he slumped to a unanimous decision defeat.

He rematched Errol Zimmerman at Glory 13: Tokyo - Welterweight World Championship Tournament in Tokyo, Japan on December 21, 2013 and knocked Zimmerman out for the second time, hurting him just seconds into the match and keeping up the pressure before putting him away with his patented left hook at the 0:35 mark of round one.

He rematched Rico Verhoeven in a bout for the vacant Glory Heavyweight (+95 kg/209 lb) Championship at Glory 17: Los Angeles in Inglewood, California, US on June 21, 2014, losing a unanimous decision.

Titles

Personal life

He supports UNICEF charities.

Acting

Ghiță appeared in the music video for Romanian hip hop group B.U.G. Mafia's song "Cât Poţi Tu De Tare" ("The Best You Can Be"). It was released on YouTube and the group's official website on December 31, 2010.