Cătălin Moroșan (30 June 1984) is ătălinMoroșa retired Romanian kickboxer, chanbara practitioner and professional rugby player. He is best known for his time in the Superkombat Fighting Championship (SUPERKOMBAT), where he competed in the heavyweight division. Moroșanu also competed for Local Kombat, K-1, Glory and Dynamite Fighting Show. He is currently a politician and kickboxing promoter, serving as president of the Dynamite Fighting Show.
He is the winner of season 9 of Romanian Dancing with the Stars and winner of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! Season 1.
Moroșanu still holds the record for longest winning streak in SUPERKOMBAT history with 17 consecutive wins. His streak, started in 2011, came to an end in controversial loss to Daniel Sam at SUPERKOMBAT World Grand Prix: Puerto Rico in 2016.
He held notable victories in his career over Stefan Leko, Gary Goodridge, Mighty Mo, Carter Williams, Paul Slowinski, Freddy Kemayo and Anderson Silva.
Moroșanu was considered to be slugger (brawler). He was a fighter who had the power to knock out their opponents with one punch. He compared himself to Bob Sapp.
As of 1 November 2018, he is #10 contender in the world in official GLORY heavyweight rankings. And as of 6 June 2019, he is ranked the #12 heavyweight in the world by All The Best Fights.
In 2017, Disney Pixar chose the kickboxer to provide the Romanian voice of a local from the animated movie Coco.
Career
2005–2007
After a short career as a professional rugby player, Moroșanu began kickboxing professionally in 2005 and spent the majority of his early career competing in the Local Kombat promotion in his home country.
He made his K-1 debut on April 5, 2007, at K-1 Fighting Network Romania 2007 against Stefan Leko., and was handed the first defeat of his career by the German veteran as he lost via unanimous decision. Following this, he returned to Local Kombat to take three more wins, over Dimitry Podgaisky, Sergei Gur and Nicolas Vermont, by the end of the year.
2008
In 2008, Moroșanu was invited to take part in the K-1 European Grand Prix. The opening round was held at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 in Budapest Europe GP Final Elimination on February 9 where he was able to defeat Turkish fighter Erhan Deniz via unanimous decision after an extra round. In the quarter-finals at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 in Amsterdam on April 26, Moroșanu was knocked out with a knee strike by Frenchman Freddy Kemayo just seconds into the opening round.
Following a first-round knock out of Junichi Sawayashiki at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 in Taipei on July 13, Moroșanu rematched Kemayo on November 6 at Local Kombat 31 in Buzău, Romania. He was able to avenge his defeat by winning the match by unanimous decision.
He ended the year by defeating Trinidadian brawler Gary Goodridge in a match for the WKN Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship at Local Kombat 32 on December 12. After being dominated for most of the fight, Goodridge quit on his stool at the end of the second round.
2009
Moroșanu began 2009 with a fifty-eight-second knockout of Musab Gulsari at the K-1 Rules Tournament 2009 in Budapest on February 28. In his next match on 16 May at K-1 ColliZion 2009 Mlada Boleslav, he lost by another knee KO in an upset loss to Slovakian Tomas Kohut. He bounced back, however, by knocking out Wiesław Kwaśniewski in round one at K-1 ColliZion 2009 Sarajevo.
His KO wins then earned him a chance to compete in a superfight at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 in Seoul Final 16 on September 26, where he faced Japanese karate fighter Taiei Kin in a highly-controversial bout. Towards the end of the first round, the "clapper" (the device used to signal the remaining 10 seconds of the round) sounded. Moroșanu seemed to think the sound indicative of the ending of the round, and began walking towards his corner, only to be met by a punch from Kin (who was rightfully continuing in the context of the official rules regarding the fight). The end bell, signifying the officially sanctioned end of the round, sounded moments later. Moroșanu deliberately continued to fight, hitting Taiei (who was defenseless after dropping his hands at the end of the round) with a two punch flurry, knocking him unconscious. Moroșanu was disqualified from the fight, thus giving the victory to Taiei by means of disqualification.
The audience present at the show booed the decision awarding Taiei the victory. The crowd believed the punches to have been thrown before or exactly when the bell had sounded. However, video evidence refutes this.