Former Badr Hari opponent Benjamin Adegbuyi set for SENSHI 31 fight against Daniel Dinev
Benjamin Adegbuyi will return to the ring at SENSHI 31 Gladiators on May 30, where he is scheduled to meet Bulgarian heavyweight Daniel Dinev in a 95+ kg super fight under the SENSHI banner in Plovdiv. The gala takes place at the Ancient Theatre, with gates opening at 6:30 p.m. EET and the first bout set for 7:30 p.m. EET, as SENSHI stages an outdoor event in one of Bulgaria’s best-known historic venues.
Badr Hari foe Benjamin Adegbuyi enters SENSHI 31 fight card for Plovdiv event
Adegbuyi arrives with a name that carries weight in kickboxing. The Romanian veteran is a former two-time GLORY heavyweight title challenger and a three-time winner in GLORY heavyweight contender tournaments, achievements that helped establish him as one of the more recognizable heavyweights of the last decade. With 35 kickboxing wins, 20 by knockout, against 10 losses and one no contest, while GLORY’s fighter profile lists a 15-8 mark in that promotion alone.
His résumé is tied to several of the division’s major names. Adegbuyi shared the ring with Rico Verhoeven in GLORY title fights and also scored a high-profile win over Badr Hari in 2021, the result that remains one of the standout moments of his later career. That background makes his SENSHI appearance notable even in a card shaped around tournament action, because he enters as the more established international name in the Dinev matchup.
Dinev, though, is not being matched as an opponent just to fill a slot. Ahead of his SENSHI debut, he is the 2023 World Championship bronze medalist, 2024 European vice champion, a two-time World Cup winner in 2024 and 2025, the 2025 European Cup winner, and a 14-time Bulgarian heavyweight champion. In other words, SENSHI is pairing a local title collector with a veteran who has already operated on the sport’s biggest stages.
SENSHI 31
The full SENSHI 31 card is bigger than one heavyweight bout. The promotion has made the night’s central theme an eight-man Grand Prix at 70 kg, with the winner required to survive three bouts in one evening to claim the SENSHI lightweight tournament crown. The quarterfinal field includes Angelo Volpe vs. Samo Petje, Aissam Chadid vs. Bruno Gazani, Hirokatsu Miyagi vs. Dragomir Petrov, and Zehao Zhang vs. Marian Lapusneanu, with reserve fights featuring Maxence Vignais vs. Wiktor Kolaja and Mihail Velchovski vs. Andres Casado.
- GP LW Angelo Volpe, Italy – Samo Petje, Slovenia
- GP LW Aissam Chadid, Morocco – Bruno Gazani, Brazil
- GP LW Reserve Bout Maxence Vignais, France – Wiktor Kolaja, Poland
- GP LW Reserve Bout Mihail Velchovski, Bulgaria – Andres Casado, Spain
- GP LW Hirokatsu Miyagi, Japan – Dragomir Petrov, Bulgaria
- GP LW Zehao Zhang, China – Marian Lapusneanu, Romania
- Super Fight -75 kg. Bart Horvath, England – Atanas Bozhilov, Bulgaria
- GP LW Semifinal 1
- GP LW Semifinal 2
- Super Fight 95+ kg Mantas Rimdeika, Lithuania – Thomas Bridgewater, Netherlands
- GP LW Bout for 3rd place
- Super Fight 95+ kg Daniel Dinev, Bulgaria – Benjamin Adegbuyi, Romania
- GP LW Final
Three super fights sit around that bracket. Alongside Adegbuyi vs. Dinev, the card includes Bart Horvath of England against Bulgaria’s Atanas Bozhilov at 75 kg, plus Mantas Rimdeika of Lithuania against Thomas Bridgewater of the Netherlands at 95+ kg. The Grand Prix semifinals, a third-place bout, and the final will round out a 13-fight lineup.
The venue gives the show a hook beyond the fights themselves. The Ancient Theatre of Plovdiv is a Roman-era site that once hosted public spectacles and today holds about 6,000 spectators, giving SENSHI a setting that fits its “Gladiators” branding in a literal way.
In the weeks before the event, SENSHI also held an invitational camp in Varna led by Albert Kraus and Andy Souwer, where fighters from 16 countries prepared for the Plovdiv show. Among those linked to the camp were Atanas Bozhilov, Dragomir Petrov, Mihail Velchovski, Samo Petje, and Wiktor Kolaja, tying the event build directly to the tournament and Bulgarian matchups on the final card.
