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- Jun 6, 2018
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I know Branco from the beginning. He started out as an amateur boxer and did fullcontact kickboxing in Yugoslavia. He was very strong and powerful from his first fights in 1979.
Back than he fought at the Tampa WAKO World Championships. He won all his fights and lost the final to Franz Haller fighting at 74 KG. He kept fighting for WAKO who had changed fullcontact title fights to 5 round events from tournaments as long as they had promoters for that concept. He won a couple of World title and European title fights that way. His toughest opponents were Steve Babbs (UK), Franz Haller (Italy) and Ray McCallum (USA). He beat McCallum handily in their 1981 match in their Miami Beach clash, but was disqualified at the end of the fight due to a head butt. He kept fighting fullcontact for 2 or 3 more years under IKL I think before he moved to Amsterdam to workout with Thom Harrinck.
Under Harinck he made some spectacular fights until he was defeated by Don Wilson. Cikatic insisted he was cheated in this fight. After his drama with Alexio he moved on to K-1. I think his K-1 career is pretty well documented. I loved his fight with Andy Hug.
I agree he had a record of dirty fighting.
These days he is in critical medical condition in hospital. His daughter started a crowd funding campaign that hasn't helped too much: https://gogetfunding.com/medical-fundraiser-branko-cikatic/
I hope he can recover quickly.
Back than he fought at the Tampa WAKO World Championships. He won all his fights and lost the final to Franz Haller fighting at 74 KG. He kept fighting for WAKO who had changed fullcontact title fights to 5 round events from tournaments as long as they had promoters for that concept. He won a couple of World title and European title fights that way. His toughest opponents were Steve Babbs (UK), Franz Haller (Italy) and Ray McCallum (USA). He beat McCallum handily in their 1981 match in their Miami Beach clash, but was disqualified at the end of the fight due to a head butt. He kept fighting fullcontact for 2 or 3 more years under IKL I think before he moved to Amsterdam to workout with Thom Harrinck.
Under Harinck he made some spectacular fights until he was defeated by Don Wilson. Cikatic insisted he was cheated in this fight. After his drama with Alexio he moved on to K-1. I think his K-1 career is pretty well documented. I loved his fight with Andy Hug.
I agree he had a record of dirty fighting.
These days he is in critical medical condition in hospital. His daughter started a crowd funding campaign that hasn't helped too much: https://gogetfunding.com/medical-fundraiser-branko-cikatic/
I hope he can recover quickly.
