Darren Currah is the Deputy Editor of Martial News, Co-Chief Instructor of DFM Martial Arts and a Director with the company which owns both, DFM Self-protection Ltd.

He is a fourth Dan in Directional Fighting Method and holds Dan grades in Kickboxing and Wado Ryu Karate and has trained many others arts including MMA and Ju-jitsu.

He recently moved to Bulgaria after buying property there and in A Stranger in a Strange Land he is going to chronicle his journey into Balkan country's martial arts scene...  

MMA FIGHT NIGHTS IN BULGARIA

DARREN CURRAH: I’ve been to a couple of MMA events here in Bulgaria, only to watch as my competing days are long gone. They only seem to have Amateur and Pro fighters here, unlike the UK where we have Semi-pro as well.

The amateur rules are very similar apart from they are allowed head shots when standing and are not allowed to use knees or elbows at all.  

I went along to an amateur only event in Stara Zagora that was held in the sports hall where I train. It’s not a huge hall, they had a matted area set which was cordoned off and a few tables and chairs with mostly standing space. A warm-up area at each side of the hall and another room open for fighters as well.  

It was free to go in and watch you just had to find a bit of space with a decent view. 

Fighters weighed in as normal. There were 2 seated judges and a ref along with the officials table. The lads wore shin and insteps and head guards along with the usual gloves, groin guard and mouth piece. Some lads wore the groin guard on the outside of their shorts, very nice. 

As the day went on you could see what a pain the head guards were whilst grappling and some times the shin and insteps were proving to be a nuisance, but always safety first. Most of the match ups were good but there were a couple of dodgy ones. I remember one lad that looked to have turned up with his mates to have a go. Don’t know whether this was the case but he put everything into it and I didn’t see anyone in his corner. 

The event was fairly well run, and I appreciate it was a amateur event, but having held cage fight events myself in the UK, I could see many ways to spruce this up and make a great show out of it. So, if there are any organisers out there that want to get in touch, please do and we can get together to put a show on that people will remember.

The other event was at the Spartak Arena, Kardjali. The Spartak arena is a small open air amphitheatre with seating around about ¾ of it. The ring was set up in the middle on a 3’ base with the VIP tables around it and another platform leading from a small building to the ring for the fighters. The ring was under a canvas roof with lighting around and a couple of guys with video/TV cameras. Lots of lovely ring girls and dancers, the fighters were being announced and coming in to their intro’ music. 

The event started in the usual way with the amateur fights getting the night going. I was there to cheer on a couple of lads I have been training with over the past few months in Stara Zagora. They have had half a dozen pro fights each and were well up for it. 

Veselin Ivanov was the 1^st up for the club. Round 1 – saw both fighters show good all round skills. Veselin escaping a few choke attempts and dodging an illegal elbow near the end of the round.  

The start of round 2 saw plenty of punches with Veselin connecting with one before going to ground. Back on their feet Veselin goes for a take down and they end up through the ropes. The ref starts them back in the middle with Veselin underneath, as they were when they went out. Veselin gets his opponent into full guard and attempts a choke, keeping tight a hold he works it in until his opponent has no choice but to tap out. A good fight and another win for his record. 

Next up was Stanimir Petrov who stood taller than his opponent. They came out trading blows at the start then soon go to ground, Stanimir ends up on the bottom as his opponent works round and eventually gets the mount and reins down the blows. He defends well but takes some punishment before managing to reverse and take the top, he tries passing guard but finds it difficult to get a more dominant position. His opponent suddenly bridges hard and manages to reverse him and goes for the ground and pound, but he’s saved by the bell. 

An explosive start to the round saw Stanimir gets caught with a hook but returns with a knee to the head. They go to ground and he suffers some more ground and pound. Only able to defend he turns and gives his back and his opponent sinks in a rear naked choke that he couldn’t get out of and has no option but to tap.  

I’m looking forward to the next event I go to here, the club I train with are holding one in September at Stara Zagora I think, so will be good to cheer the lads on and do another report. 

Anyone wanting to contact me regarding events, whether to do a report for our site, sending a technique of the month or organising an event can contact me at 

DARREN CURRAH: Turned up for my lesson, there were maybe 10 lads there. 

I warmed myself up and had a chat with Emil (the instructor) told him a little about what I had done and he told me a bit about his background. 

(Caption): Instructor Emil (red) instructs a student in basic punching skills

He's done a lot of judo competition in his time and trained in Sambo for a few years. Will be interesting to do an interview with him one day and find out a bit more about his martial arts past.

Most of the lads there spoke some English which is helpful, the younger ones speak pretty good English as they teach it in the schools now and of course it is everywhere, on TV, the radio, sign posts, clothing etc.

As the "new lad" most of the more experienced lads wanted to grapple with me, which is fine. I suppose for the first month they saw me as someone different to train with, and I'm sure they thought I was more experienced than I was with grappling. 

Never one to turn down a bit of "Randori" I accepted all, even the lads that were prob 15- 20kg heavier than me. Most Bulgarian lads are well built, stocky and go to the gym. Well I’m sure that weight/power lifting is a national sport here.

As the weeks went by I saw more new faces that would want to grapple with me, I'm sure they would come for only this because some of them I haven't seen again. This was okay and improved my ground work and I’m getting okay at fighting from my back, but wasn't really learning anything new which is disappointing.

Since then there have been a few classes where we have gone through mostly Judo throws and some Sambo moves. You're kinda left on your own to partner up and get on with something most of the time. 

This is taking a bit of getting used to, and not getting to classes as often as I would like doesn't help. The lads have their partners and work away in their little groups. Being the new lad and not training to often, I don't want to really disturb that, but I suppose I'll have to other wise I'll be sitting like Billy no mates.

As time goes on you notice more in the different ways that people train and teach. The turn up and get on with it approach instead of the structured class is okay a night or two a week. 

The lads have to use their initiative, partner up and practice something they want to work on instead of being told what  to do each time. Like most classes I'm sure, if they don't get on with anything or mess around they get a shouting at, and possibly push ups or something.

The Bulgarians sound like they are shouting at each other most of the time anyway, but their not. It's quite amusing at times because you’re expecting fists to start flying but it's a smile and a pat on the arm, but when the voice starts bouncing around the gym you know who's in charge.

I've also been to a couple of MMA events since I’ve been here. There were a couple of lads from the gym fighting in one and another where there weren't, martial arts politics it gets everywhere.  I have pictures and bits of video for you to see from the latter.

I’ll tell you about these next time.

DARREN CURRAH: My girlfriend and I went along to watch one of the classes before I decided if would join in. I got there early and a couple of young lads were there waiting for the instructor to arrive. I tried speaking with them to find one of them spoke pretty good English. We had a reasonable conversation in broken English and I got a little info about the club and instructor.

People started arriving in dribs and drabs, some already changed and quite funnily some of the lads were holding a Gi top up whilst the others got changed. I guess there not used to a female being in the room, not like martial artists to be shy in front of women. There were only about 12 lads and only a few with a Gi top and belt, but no Gi bottoms just shorts and most just in a t-shirt and casual shorts. 

The instructor arrived and after he had got changed and spoke with some of the lads came over and introduced himself. About 5’ 8’’ with a stocky build, short dark hair and about 30 ish. Emil Stefanov is the instructor seems very friendly and speaks fairly good English, which was good news. He asked if I wanted to join in, it was a hot summer’s day and the place was hot probably about 35 degrees outside. I was in shorts and a t-shirt but declined and said I will watch this time.

The class was not structured and there seemed to be a vary of grades and experience, everyone probably under 30 (which made me feel a little old). Everyone just kinda warmed themselves up and then paired up, either started to practice a technique which were mostly judo throws or started some grappling from the ground. This was really strange after coming from the UK where an instructor would take control of the class.

You know what its like as a martial artist watching lads grappling and going through techniques, you just want to get stuck in. Well it was only about half an hour and couldn’t help myself, I told the missus I have to join in. She asked if was mad, what the hell in for a penny in for a pound. I got Emils attention and asked if it was ok to join in, no problem he said, asked me a bit about my martial arts background, told him a bit of this and a bit of that and maybe 2 years MMA, he then introduced me to a lad called Rossi.

I had 10 mins warming up and then with a quick hand shake, Rossi and I started a bit of grappling from the stand up position. Not so keen with all the rules and limitations of MMA grappling, I’m more a poke him in the eye, swift kick between the legs finished with a knee in the face kinda guy. Rossi was about 5’9’’ stocky build prob’ mid twenties, and after about 10 minutes found out he really knew his stuff. Of course it was so hot in there and being from the UK was not used to it (well that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it).

After about half an hour was ringing wet through and knackered, hadn’t trained for about six weeks and was feeling the heat. I bowed out and shook hands with Rossi said to Emil I will be back, he told me that the class runs from Monday to Friday 7 - 9pm 52 weeks of the year and he hopes to see me again.

I went home a happy man, I will prob’ stick this one out for the time being. They are a nice friendly bunch of lads, Sambo is a style I haven’t done before and I’ve done a little Judo but not a lot. They appear to be very ‘sport’ orientated so will be interesting to maybe going and seeing some sport Sambo sometime. So getting myself geared up to go along to my first class and meet the lads.

Martial Arts in Bulgaria

DARREN CURRAH: My Girlfriend and I bought a old house in Bulgaria in December 2007 to do up as a holiday home when the prices were reasonably cheap. 

Nothing flash, just a 2 up 2 down with a bit of land and a big old barn (that the roof has nearly fallen down on) for which I have plans to make into a training area, and a dilapidated old bungalow next door which basically needs knocked down and re-built. This we hope to rent out in the future when all the other projects here are finished.

After spending a few weeks at a time here over the next 18 months to do some renovation work on the house (which I plan to do most of myself) and get it into a reasonable state so it was comfortable to stay in. We decided to move here full time in June 2009. Quite a decision as I had my own landscaping business and my girlfriend has a shop.

Three nights a week I was out teaching martial arts and kickboxing and helped my brother out with the MMA class, I knew that this is what I would miss the most. My friends and I had built up our club over the years and it was ticking over nicely with lots of plans to progress and move with the times.

We packed the old transit van up with our essentials (and my martial arts kit) to get us started in our new home and off we went. It took us five days with a steady drive over Europe, taking in some of the sights. The old transit never missed a beat the whole 2000+ miles and has done the trip a few times since.

Once we got to Bulgaria I cracked on straight away with the house renovation and kept in regular contact with the lads back home to keep up with how the clubs were going. Needless to say I had to find myself a club here, I was driving the missus (and myself) mad when we were in the house every night together, I mean we had to talk and everything. I needed to get back to some sort of training so we decide to take a day out to wander around the beautiful city of Stara Zagora which is a 20 minute drive from our place.

My Girlfriend and I walked all around the beautiful city looking for some sort of martial arts club. As we did not speak the lingo it was difficult to explain to them what we were looking for.

Coming from a modern street based martial art in the form of Directional Fighting Method (DFM), it was difficult to find something similar. There were the usual suspects of akido, karate, kickboxing and even tai chi. As well as the traditional Bulgarian wrestling clubs, now this one did catch my interest.

So anyway, on our wander around the city we came across a tourist information center where one of the staff spoke some English. Great, I thought. But all she could help me with was a new gym that had opened around the corner. We took a walk around to see as it was just around the corner, but we struck out as there was only boxing that was starting in a few weeks.

As luck would have it the receptionist at the gym spoke very good English so we managed to get her to understand roughly what we were looking for so she sent us away looking for a wrestling and MMA club. After looking for these places for about 20 minutes with not to much luck we came across a school, so wondering if they ran one of the clubs here we had a wander in. The language proving to be a problem again, the receptionist got up and took us towards a classroom where we found there was an English lesson going on, great.

As the teacher was coming to speak with us some students noticed we were English and started to speak to us in pretty good English, bonus. They knew of the wrestling club and it was just around the corner and an MMA club just a couple more streets away. The receptionist actually walked us to the wrestling club which was very nice of her. It’s fair to say that most of the people we have met here in Bulgaria are very friendly and will help you as much as they can.

The wrestling club was closed, bummer. I could have fancied giving this a go as its one of the few combat sports I have never done before, but we can call back another time I suppose. So we went looking for the MMA club which was supposed to be just a couple of streets away, it was, and we found it.

On the top floor of an old sports centre with an almost fully matted room and some free weights.

An MMA club in Stara Zagora has taken me under their wing whilst I’m spending time in Bulgaria.

A friendly bunch of lads who base there MMA around the traditional Sambo and Judo.

John Barrass
Founder/Chief instructor
U.K.E.S.D.C.S





ESDCS was founded by John Barrass, and launched on June 2006 after three years of research into self defence and combat systems effectiveness in stressful street combat situations

John holds high grades in Aikido, Wado Ryu Karate and Kenjutsu (Japanese swordsmanship)

John is also a highly experienced practitioner of the Goshinjutsu and unarmed combat systems

 

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