DANIEL STOICAN is the champion of England and Romania – and he plans to conquer Europe next.
The 21-year-old won the National Amateur Championships in Derby, and then added Tri Nations silver and Haringey Box Cup gold – before going back to his roots to start his international career.
Stoican was born in Romania and lived there until he was 11 years old, when his family moved to England.
They settled in Nottingham, where Stoican boxes for Sneinton ABC.
In August, he returned to Romania to win their national title and selection for the European Under-23 Championships run by IBA that go ahead in Armenia between October 20 and November 3.
Coach Ubaid Khaliq said: “Daniel has indefinite leave and can stay in Britain for the rest of his life – but he doesn’t have a British passport. He has a Romanian one.
“To compete in the Tri Nations [where he lost to Scotland’s Sonny Kerr in the final], he didn’t need a British passport, but GB [Great Britain Boxing] told us that if he wanted to get on the Performance Pathway, he would need one.
“That would have cost us £2,000 with legal fees and taken six months and, even then, GB might have said to us: ‘We have someone we think us better than Daniel; we are sending him to major championships instead.’
“We weighed up our options and took another route.”
Stoican contacted a Romanian boxer on social media to arrange a training camp and “make some connections”.
He was put in touch with the Vice President of the Romanian Boxing Federation and Khaliq said: “He gave us the number of a coach who was training at a gym that was a four-hour drive away.
“We didn’t have any transport, but managed to get a car, drove there and sparred the Romanian who went to the [2023 IBA] World Championships in front of the national coach.
“Afterwards, he told us: ‘The Romanian Championships are in August and if you win those, we will send you to the European Championships.’”
Stoican returned to England, won the Haringey Box Cup and after a break, he returned to Romania with Khaliq for the national championships.
Khaliq said: “The conversation I had with Daniel was: ‘You have to leave no doubt in the judges’ minds and, even if you do that, you will still probably got robbed.’”
The judges weren’t needed in the quarter-finals as Stoican dispatched his opponent inside a round with a left hook to the body.
That set up a semi-final against Arun Tudoroiu, who had boxed at the IBA World Youth Championships last October.
Khaliq says Tudoroiu “hadn’t lost in Romania for years” – until he met Stoican.
He beat him unanimously to set up a final against Stefan Stavri.
Stavri was another World Youth Championship representative and he handed Stoican a count in the opening round.
The East Midlander shrugged that off to go on to win unanimously on the scorecards.
“Technically, the Romanians were good,” said Khaliq, “but they couldn’t match Daniel’s engine.
“The semi-finals and final were the same. The first round was close and then Daniel took over.
“He’s a machine. Once he gets going, there’s no stopping him.”
That is a style – along with the power he carries in his right hand – that make Stoican look well suited to professional boxing, and Khaliq says his boxer will consider his options after he has returned from Armenia next month.
“After he won the NACs, we had a look at the pros,” said Khaliq. “There was some interest, but nobody put anything on the table.
“We think that if he wins a medal at the Europeans, that will give him more leverage with the promoters.
“Ideally, I would like him to go the Olympics in Los Angeles 2028, but if he’s going to do that, he will need to train full-time for the qualifiers and I don’t know if the Romanians have that sort of funding.
“We need to talk to the Romanian Federation after the European Championships to see what they can come up with and then make a decision.”
