DAN KOLOFF #2 | Born Lion™ is a part of our design collection.

Care & Content

• 100% high-quality cotton
• Machine wash cold
• High quality manufactured
• Made in Bulgaria

…Kolov left Bulgaria and moved to the United States at the age of 17. He worked various jobs until he found work as a railroad construction worker. He impressed people with his physical power and became famous for his ability to twist metal rails around his neck.

He even fought a bear while hunting. Legend has it that he fought the beast for an hour with his bare hands until he got a chance to kill the animal with his rifle later. He was subsequently hired as a wrestler with “Victoria Circus”. At the beginning of the last century, wrestling was represented in freestyle wrestling bout in which punches and kicks were allowed. It was a dangerous sport with extremely serious and severe injuries. Catch as Catch Can (CACC) or catch wrestling could be considered the father of today’s mixed martial arts (MMA).Before being discovered and trained to be a professional wrestler by Zbyszko Cyganiewicz, Kolov was self-taught. Kolov was the first wrestler who captured professional world heavyweight wrestling championship’s “Diamond Belt” twice.

His most famous victories are:

• New York vs. Rudy Dusek (1919)
• Tokyo vs. Jiki Higen “The Strangler” (1921)
• Paris vs. Henri Deglane (1933)

He was also three times European Heavyweight Champion (1934, 1937, 1937). In 1937, Kolov defeated then European Heavyweight Champion, American Al Pereira, only for Pereira to win the title back and for Kolov to reclaim it, before losing it in turn to Joe Savoldi.