MMA Bushido’88 was held 22nd of April in Sofia, Bulgaria.
This was the first event in Bulgaria that was broadcasted on the sports channel DAZN and watched all over the world.
The event was opened with very interesting and unusual fight- Pillow Fight – between influencers Suzen and Gabriela.
The match turned out to be more heated than everyone expected, and after a few rounds, Susan was declared the winner.
The main battles were opened with the K-1 match between Iliyan Adrianov and Greek -Pantelis Zolumis.
The guy tried to press and close the distance, but he was met with a merciless left knee to the head and accordingly he was sent to the ground. This time, Zolumis had no chance to continue, and accordingly, a well-deserved and convincing victory with a knockout on Adrianov was marked.
Boris Tonev recorded a victory by submission in the evening’s only submission-only fight – a grappling match that is played until one of the opponents submits. He managed to outplay his experienced Greek opponent in a fairly dynamic match.
From there, the MMA fights started.
Rusi Hadjiev set his pace against a very tough Greek opponent. Although Apostolos Stamoulis replaced the Bulgarian’s original opponent, the Brazilian Francisco Corisco, the Greek showed a lot of stamina and did not give up even after a series of strikes and a powerful ground and pound. In the end, Hadjiev found himself in top position over his opponent after a successful takedown in the third round, after which he switched to side control. Subsequently, the 20-year-old Bulgarian imposed another merciless round of ground-and-pound, and the ringside referee decided to stop the match to spare Stamoulis further defeats.
Turkish kickboxer Yunus Batan expectedly showed a very high level fight in his MMA debut and cut down Bosnian Abdul Hakic with a lot of kicks. Hakic, who is a multiple jiu-jiu champion, was unable to impose his game, as Batan had prepared himself with an iron defense against takedowns.
Petyo Dobrev from the Pitbulls MMA club defeated Nikola Didov, who represented the Irish team SBG.
The two spent most of the fight on the ground, looking for dominance and trading blows. In the first two rounds, however, Dobrev was more convincing and this tilted the judge’s decision in his favor.
Incredible leg triangle
Denis Danailov set impressive submission victory against Alexander Hristov in what turned out to be one of MMA’s most intriguing fights.
Danailov excellently broke up a leg triangle attempt and looked like he did a very good guillotine because he also locked his legs around his opponent’s waist. Hristov eventually got out but only to be locked in a leg triangle and so with about 45 seconds left in the first round Hristov surrendered. The extraordinary thing about Danailov is that he doesn’t have much of his right hand.
Mitko Iliev suffered a submission defeat – a leg triangle – by undefeated Serbian Ognyan Babic just seven seconds before the end of the first round.
The Bulgarian showed tremendous heart after surviving a powerful ground and pound from the Serbian. This brought the crowd to their feet, but unfortunately, shortly after, he ran into a triangle submission on the Serb.
Nikita Leshukov made one of the most attractive and high-paced fights of the evening. He dealt quickly and in a very beautiful way with Ovidius Axinte.
Leshukov was awarded for this by the Bulgarian kickboxer Stoyan Koprivlenski.
In, perhaps, the most brutal knockout of the night, Frenchman Francois Gounon defeated David Hawker. Both fighters were undefeated in their careers, and the finish came quickly with a brutal knockout followed by several strikes on the ground.
Zhivko Stoimenov delighted the Bulgarian fans of mixed martial arts with his 14th professional victory and eighth by knockout. He brutally beheaded the 36-year-old Ukrainian Maxim Soroka.
More pictures from the event