Nine-year-old Daria Kirilova steps into the EFA Championship ring with four national titles

Daria Kirilova is only 9, but she is already a four-time Bulgarian kickboxing champion. On Saturday, 3 October, she will step into the ring at EFA Championship at ASICS Arena, and NOVA SPORT will broadcast the gala live from 20:00. Days before the bout, NOVA devoted a TV report to the young fighter.

Daria has literally grown up in the gym. Her parents are kickboxers, and her father Mario says she has been coming to training since her 20th day of life, because her mother is a competitor too. As a little girl she copied the fighters during training, and that is how she gradually fell for the sport.

Today Daria trains two hours every day. Over the last two years she has collected four national titles, four semi-pro bouts and four wins. Her father says it is hard to find opponents her age: "They avoid her, so she has to fight older girls, because she is very talented, however immodest that may sound." She remembers her debut herself: "In my first fight I was 7 and the girl was 10. I won by knockout."

At 7, Daria went to a training camp in Thailand, where she worked with the coaches of her idols. Sessions there last two to three hours: a warm-up, five five-minute rounds on the pads, five more on the bag and finally a hundred knee strikes per leg. Her big dream is to fight in ONE Championship, become world champion and win more titles than her mother.

At EFA Championship Daria will face an opponent from Nesebar in a bout of three one-minute rounds, in full protective gear and with no kicks to the head. "I feel prepared," she says. Her team's next target is the World Muay Thai Championships in Greece.

Despite the serious routine, for Daria the sport is above all something she enjoys. She trains because she loves it, and in the ring she feels excited. Asked what she likes most about competing, she answers like a true child: the sweets after the fights.