Catalin Morosanu is not your typical kickboxer.
The Romanian heavyweight never had any intention of getting involved in the sport when he was younger. Instead he played rugby throughout his teenage years, studied law at university and graduated law school before his career took a sharp and unexpected turn.
Morosanu (42-10, 25 KO's) describes his route into professional kickboxing as “an accident”. He took up kickboxing largely for fun, but soon found himself headhunted by SuperKombat, the leading promotion in Romania, for their Local Kombat feeder league. The rest is history.
“That is a very advanced age, in terms of a professional. Most start at 14 or 16 years old, something like that,” he explains. “I was 21 when I started it, I went to open auditions for Local Kombat and I was selected, I think they saw that I was a showman and would be good for TV.
“It all started from that. I think it was all destiny, really. I still have my law degree of course. Maybe when my kickboxing career is finished I might still go into law. We will see.”
In the meantime, Morosanu is preparing to make his GLORY debut. Like all fighters, his ultimate goal is to one day be champion, but he is not making any bold statements at this stage. With the natural caution of a lawyer, Morosanu is taking it one step at a time.
“GLORY is the biggest kickboxing organization in the world, the biggest platform, and for me it is an honor to be here. I wanted to be here for a long time but I had to honor contractual agreements in Romania,” he says.
“I have a three-fight contract now and I am at the beginning. I want to win all three fights, it's very important to win this debut and then the rest, and then maybe next year I can fight the top five in GLORY. But for now I am a new entry and I must win my fights and demonstrate that next year I can be on top.”
Morosanu's debut comes against Maurice Greene, who will be fighting on home soil at GLORY 38 CHICAGO. At 6'0 and 222lbs (100kgs), Morosanu is not a small man. But Greene stands 6'6 and thus will tower over him and enjoy a significant reach advantage.
“Yeah he's a big guy. It's nothing I didn't face before,” says Morosanu, unperturbed. “I must be very aggressive, get in close, give him a lot of punches. I have to make sure not to give him distance for front kick and so on, he can do damage there, it would be difficult for me to fight him at distance.
“I do have much more experience than him at a higher competition level but for me all opponents are dangerous, I take them all seriously and never underestimate anyone. It doesn't matter to me who an opponent is, I always say yes. We have only one life and if we refuse because we are scared, where is the glory? We fight for glory. Glory is even the name of the organization!”
One name that Morosanu has previously said 'yes' to is Badr Hari. He was supposed to fight the former K-1 heavyweight champion in Dubai last year but arrangements fell through when the promoter ran out of money.
Hari fought GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven in December and lost by second-round TKO via an arm injury. Morosanu was watching closely.
“It was a bit of a disappointment,” he says. “I am a fighter. I cannot understand that an arm injury can end the fight like this. We [kickboxers] train hard and take kicks on the forearm all the time and I don't understand how that can end the fight.
“But I am a big fan of Badr, I like his aggression, fans want to see it and he brings a show. This fight business is also a show-business and if there is no show then it does not sell tickets and pay-per-view. It's very important to have fighters who put on a show – and I am one of them!”
