Posts tagged Daniel Ghita

ISTANBUL, Turkey (April 4, 2013) – The fighters’ training camps have winded down for the long-awaited rematch between heavyweight superstar rivals Gokhan Saki (79-16, 55 KOs) of the Netherlands and Daniel Ghita (46-8, 35 KOs) of Romania in the main event of GLORY 6 Istanbul at Ülker Sports Arena on Saturday, April 6, live on GloryWorldSeries.com.

At stake in the contest is a crack at reigning GLORY Heavyweight Champion Semmy Schilt, whom the 29-year-old, 1.82 meter/6-foot, 104.3 kilogram/230-pound Saki lost a unanimous decision to in the semifinal stage of the GLORY 4 Tokyo Heavyweight Grand Slam 16-man, one-night tournament on New Year’s Eve.  The defeat came after Saki scored back-to-back, thunderous first round KOs on Raoumaru of Japan and Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva in the round of 16 and quarterfinal stages of the tournament, respectively.

For Saki, the fight is not only an opportunity to put himself into position to capture the GLORY heavyweight championship and avenge a previous loss to the towering 2.12 meter/6-foot-11 ½, 132 kilogram/291 pound Schilt, but also a chance to return to his roots.  A native of Turkey, Saki will certainly have the thousands of fans at Ülker Sports Arena behind him, giving the heavy-handed KO artist added incentive in the bout.

Here is what Saki, who previously defeated Ghita via unanimous decision on Dec. 11, 2010, said before shutting the doors to his training camp:

“I fought Ghita in 2010. He is a very technical fighter.  He is a good fighter. He is big and has more weight than me, but now it’s two years later and my style is much better. Last time I won by points, but this time I am going to try and knock him out. That’s what I have been training for. I train with Mike Passenier now – a new system. This is the system for the KOs and that’s what we are going to do.”

On Ghita’s camp having concerns about fighting in front of a Turkish crowd: 

“If Daniel wins or hits me good, he doesn’t need to worry. It’s a sport. If he wins, he wins.  If I win, then I win. I hear there are some problems at the other side, but they don’t need to worry. I! t’s sport and Turkish people love sport, love kickboxing, (there will be) no problem.” 

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