The captain of Bulgaria’s national kickboxing team – Atanas Bozhilov, had his first successful WAKO PRO belt defense yesterday in Varna, Bulgaria.
Bozhilov defeated Portugal Adolfo Barao at SENSHI 5 via UD. The fight was conducted under the WAKO PRO K-1 rules in the 71.8 kg category.
WAKO PRO certified referee Krasimir Dimov was the third man inside the ring.
That was Bozhilov’s first defense of the title. The Burgas native won the chip in 2019 at SENSHI 2.
The Bulgarian was smart and calculated as usual. Both guys started slowly, reading each other’s defense. Atanas was the one standing in the center of the ring most of the time, looking for flaws to exploit. Barao was manly counter-attacking, but Bozhilov was always finishing his combos the proper way and he barely made a mistake when regrouping.
Barao started to heat up in the third round, as he closed the distance a couple of times and managed to land some clean punches to the body and the head. Still, Bozhilov exchanged those punches for some jabs that struck the target most of the time.
Bozhilov’s leading foot was causing the most damage. His kicks to Barao’s right leg were solid as it was clean as a whistle that Barao was having troubles defend the right leg or to attack with it.
After the full five rounds were up, the three judges ringside scored the fight 46-50, 45-50, and 46-50 all in favor of the home crowd hero.
