Eduard "Edi" Irimia (born July 10, 1974) is a Romanian

kickboxing Kickboxing is a combat sports, combat sport focused on kicking and punch (strike), punching. The combat takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouthguards, shorts, and bare feet to favour the use of kicks. Kickboxing is pract ...

promoter, television producer and businessman. He is the founder and CEO of Superkombat Fighting Championship (Superkombat) and has promoted some of the most prominent names in kickboxing.

Early life and education

Irimia was born in

Ploiești Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest. The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Blejoi commu ...

, where his father was a boxing coach. Seeking to become a doctor, he attended

medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, M ...

Boxing promoter

After a trip to England in 1996 where he attended a

Naseem Hamed Naseem Hamed (born 12 February 1974), nicknamed Prince Naseem and Naz, is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2002.. Retrieved 25 February 2016. He held multiple featherweight world championships, including the WBO ti ...

fight, Irimia first has become a boxing promoter. He promoted the first professional boxing event in Romania and fighters like

Tony Badea Tony "Bad Boy" Badea (born 2 May 1974) is a Romanian Canadian retired professional boxer. Career Badea competed as welterweight, light middleweight, middleweight and super middleweight between the 1990s and 2000s. He won the Canada Welterweig ...

, being the leading promoter on

Pro TV PRO TV (, often stylized as PRO•TV as of 2017) is a Romanian free-to-air television network, launched on 1 December 1995 as the fourth private TV channel in the country (after TV SOTI, Antena 1, and the now-defunct Tele7ABC). It is owned by CME ...

. On 23 March 2009 he was the cover subject of the first issue of Forbes Romania magazine.

Kickboxing promoter

Local Kombat (2003–2010)

In 2003, Irimia founded Local Kombat. The show proved a ratings success. Local Kombat was home for fighters such as

Cătălin Zmărăndescu Cătălin Zmărăndescu (born 26 January 1973) is a former Romanian professional mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist, Kickboxing, kickboxer and professional boxing, boxer. Kickboxing record , - bgcolor="#c5d2ea" , 2006-11-11 , ...

Ciprian Sora Ciprian Sora (born 23 October 1976) is a Romanian kickboxing trainer and founder of the Golden Glory Romania gym in Bucharest. As an athlete, he became the first ever Romanian to win a gold medal at the Muay Thai world championships in 1999 a ...

Ionuț Iftimoaie Ionuţ Iftimoaie (born August 26, 1978) is a retired Romanian kickboxer. Besides the K-1, Iftimoaie has fought for a number of other promotions including the Local Kombat and SUPERKOMBAT. He defeated names such as Freddy Kemayo, Petar Majstorov ...

Daniel Ghiță Daniel Florin Ghiță (, born 22 April 1981) is a Romanian politician and former kickboxer, who serves as a member of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania since December 2020. Ghiță is the former It's Showtime heavyweight champion. He formerly c ...

Sebastian Ciobanu Sebastian Ciobanu (born March 17, 1985) is a Romanian Super heavyweight kickboxer fighting in the K-1 and SUPERKOMBAT promotions. Career K-1 He made his K-1 debut in 2009 at K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 in Tokyo Final 16 Qualifying GP against Ser ...

and

Cătălin Moroșanu Cătălin Moroșanu (30 June 1984) is a 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 d ...

. WKN of Stéphane Cabrera was sanctioning the series of events.

K-1 (2007–2010; 2012–2013)

In 2007, he co-promoted

K-1 Fighting Network Romania 2007 ''K-1 Fighting Network Romania 2007'' was a kickboxing event held by the K-1 organization in association with the Local Kombat promotion on Friday, May 4, 2007 at the Sala Polivalentă in Bucharest, Romania. Background An eight-man eliminat ...

with K-1. Between 2008 and 2010, Irimia promoted K-1's ColliZion and other events across Europe. On 21 May 2010, he promoted

K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 in Bucharest ''K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 in Bucharest'', billed as ''Europe's GP'', was a kickboxing event held by the K-1 organization in association with the Local Kombat promotion on Friday, May 21, 2010 at the Romexpo Dome in Bucharest, Romania. Part ...

(in association with K-1). He assisted the Japanese organisation in securing talent coming out of Europe. Between 2012 and 2013, together with the new board of K-1, Irimia promoted the

K-1 World Grand Prix 2012 in Los Angeles This is a list of events held in 2012 by K-1, a kickboxing promotion based in Hong Kong. K-1 World MAX 2012 World Championship Tournament Final 16 ''K-1 World MAX 2012 World Championship Tournament Final 16'' was a kickboxing event promoted b ...

and

K-1 World Grand Prix 2012 in Tokyo Final 16 This is a list of events held in 2012 by K-1, a kickboxing promotion based in Hong Kong. K-1 World MAX 2012 World Championship Tournament Final 16 ''K-1 World MAX 2012 World Championship Tournament Final 16'' was a kickboxing event promoted by ...

events.

Superkombat Fighting Championship (2011–present)

In 2011, after the K-1 dissolution, fights promoted by Irimia started to air on

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...

. After eight years of experience in Local Kombat, Irimia started to expand internationally launching the product under a new name, Superkombat World Grand Prix series (a knockout tournament featuring 16 kickboxers). On December 14, 2016, the broadcast deal with

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...

was announced.

Producer

Irimia expanded his fighting enterprise producing television content and films. In 2018, Irimia established "Superfilm," alongside Hollywood producers

Moshe Diamant Moshe Diamant is an American film producer. He is best known for having started Trans World Entertainment (TWE) in 1983. Filmography (Producer) He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted. Film ;Miscellaneous crew ;As writer ...

and

Christopher Milburn Christopher Milburn is an England, English actor and Film producer, producer. He appeared in ''Casualty (TV series), Casualty'', as well the last two series of ''Rumpole of the Bailey'' as the title character's handsome colleague, Dave Inchcape. ...

Philanthropy

In December 2013, he donated all the incomes from the tickets sales for Superkombat World Grand Prix 2013 Final to flood victims of

Galați Galați (, , ; also known by other alternative names) is the capital city of Galați County in the historical region of Western Moldavia, in eastern Romania. Galați is a port town on the Danube River. It has been the only port for the most par ...

. In 2015, he donated portion of ticket sales for an event at Institutul Clinic Fundeni supporting

oncology Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...

patients (children with cancer). Irimia once again donated half of ticket sales for Superkombat World Grand Prix 2015 Final to

Colectiv nightclub fire The Colectiv nightclub fire was a deadly fire in Bucharest, Romania, on 30 October 2015, which killed 64 people (26 on site, 38 in hospitals) and injured 146. The fire, which was the deadliest fire in the country's history, occurred during a free ...

victims.

Accomplishments

* World Independent Promoters Union Awards ** Promoter of the Year (2011)

Honours and decorations

Foreign honours

* Italy: Medal of Honor of the

Italian Republic Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in 2013

Personal life

He has been married to Oana Irimia since 2014, and they have one child together (Edward Andrei b. 2017). Irimia also has a daughter (Michelle b. 2004) from a previous marriage. His brother, Emil Irimia, is a kickboxing and boxing supervisor and coordinator.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irimia, Eduard 1974 births Living people Romanian sportspeople Romanian boxing promoters Romanian kickboxing promoters Romanian chief executives Romanian television producers Mixed martial arts executives Sportspeople from Ploiești Sports managers