Beekeeper Samo Petje Steps Into SENSHI 31 Grand Prix With Giorgio Petrosyan’s Lessons and a Tokyo Title Fight on Deck

Samo Petje walks into the Ancient Theatre of Plovdiv on May 30 carrying a lot of expectations, and a mind full of beekeeping advice. The 34-year-old Slovenian kickboxer carries the SENSHI European Champion at 75 kg, and for SENSHI 31 Gladiators he has dropped a weight class to compete in the 70 kg Lightweight Grand Prix, an eight-man one-night elimination tournament that serves as the centerpiece of the evening .

His first-round opponent is Italy’s Angelo Volpe, a 27-year-old from Cerignola, Apulia. Volpe is no easy out. At GLORY 94 in August 2024, he pulled off what many called the upset of the year, defeating Muay Thai legend Youssef Boughanem, a man who entered that fight with 168 wins and 120 knockouts on his record . His current professional record stands at 39 wins, 5 losses, and 12 knockouts. Volpe’s team says they have built a specific game plan for opponents from the Petrosyan school, noting they face that style so regularly that they consider it tested territory.

Samo Petje – Student of Giorgio Petrosyan

Petje trained with Giorgio Petrosyan for over a decade. Every week, he drove approximately 100 kilometres from his home in Slovenia to Petrosyan’s gym in Gorizia, Italy paying fuel and toll costs out of his own pocket.

“Every time I went there, I learned something new,” Petje said. “He always showed me what I needed to correct, and I tried to bring those lessons into my own training. Then when I stepped into the ring, everything worked.” Petrosyan, who is Armenian-Italian retired in late 2025 with a record of 109 wins and 3 losses, having won the K-1 World MAX title twice in 2009 and 2010. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest kickboxers in the sport’s history.

The Petrosyan style, as Petje describes it, blends Dutch kickboxing, classical boxing, Muay Thai kicks, and Muay Thai knees, a hybrid that is deliberately hard to decipher. “That’s why it’s very hard to read,” Petje said of the approach. He applies the same logic to his own game.

“I think no one can truly read my game. I prepare individually for each fighter and adapt the second I step into the ring.” It is a philosophy that has served him well across multiple promotions, including his SENSHI European title at 75 kg and previous K-1 and Muay Thai European titles.

SENSHI 31

Despite entering the tournament as one of the favourites, Petje says the outside noise doesn’t reach him. “I know my qualities, and I believe in myself. When I go into the ring, I feel mature and ready.” Volpe, for his part, says the biggest challenge of a one-night tournament is energy management between bouts, and that he handles it by staying locked in on one fight at a time.

Away from the ring, Petje keeps bees and trains out of what he calls a “laboratory” in an old school building in Slovenia. He says the beekeeping functions as mental conditioning. “When you work with bees, you cannot be nervous. If you are nervous, it becomes difficult.”

Tonight’s tournament, should he get through, Petje has the vacant RISE Middleweight (70 kg) title on the line at RISE 199 on June 28 in Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall. “Since then, I’ve always believed I could win a belt in RISE,” Petje said, recalling a previous win over Japanese fighter Hinata that convinced him he could compete at the top level in Japan. “I kept asking for the opportunity, and now the time has come.”

SENSHI 31 Gladiators takes place at the Ancient Theatre of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, a Roman-era open-air venue that seats thousands and has become one of the more striking backdrops in European combat sports. The event is organised in cooperation with the KWU International Professional League and brings together fighters from 14 countries, including Italy, Japan, Brazil, France, Morocco, and the Netherlands.

Alongside the Grand Prix, the card features three KWU Full Contact super fights, including a heavyweight clash involving Benjamin Adegbuyi, known internationally for his knockout victory over Badr Hari. Petje’s opening-round bout against Volpe is scheduled to kick off the Grand Prix bracket, meaning he faces the sharpest test first, with potentially two more fights to follow on the same night if he advances.