Personally, I would never spend that much to attend a sporting event, but there are enough people who will so the prices keep up with the demand.

Also, I don't understand the obsession with Connor McGregor. Why is he so popular? Because he is a loudmouth trash talker? I am newer to the UFC so maybe I missed it?

I know it is so far out (July 2028) that it is kind of silly to think about, but just thought I'd start a thread in case anyone ends up going to the Summer Olympics in 2028! I'm local to Los Angeles (well, I am as I wrote this in 2026, anyway), so we picked up tickets to a couple of events during the locals presale, including the JUD10 Judo Mixed Final, which will include:

• Women's -70kg Repechage Contests
• Women's -70kg Semifinal Contests
• Men's -90kg Repechage Contests
• Men's -90kg Semifinal Contests
• Women's -70kg Bronze Contests
• Women's -70kg Final
• Men's -90kg Bronze Contests
• Men's -90kg Final

Seemed like a fun idea! Maybe some other community members will make it out.

Patrick

Jake VS Joshua fight at the Kaseya Center in Miami, FL saw Jake Paul being knocked out by Anthony Joshua.

To Jake’s credit, the former YouTube star has turned himself into a boxing novelty.

Not only was Paul knocked out by a tremendous right hook from Joshua, but Paul’s jaw was broken in 2 places with 1:48 remaining in the 6th round. 

Paul’s surgery went well. Doctors placed 2 titanium plates on each side of his jaw.

For the first time, Paul fought a boxer worth his salt in Joshua, so much so, that Joshua dominated the entire fight.

While many fighting fans might’ve enjoyed seeing Jake lose, Jake got the last laugh at the tune of $100M on Netflix over the weekend.

Any thoughts? 

I find it strange that there is a three-decade age gap between the fighters. Has anything close to this ever happened before? I don't follow boxing and have never really watched it, so I have no idea.

I don't know much about Jake Paul; I think he emerged three or four years ago through social media and got some fights because of it?

I will likely watch this fight and it would be the first Tyson fight I have ever seen live.

Edit: I realized I should have made this a poll question after I posted, so I added it now.

The fight will be in Brazil.

Edit: Forgot to mention that if you are interested in buying the PPV you can save ten dollars if order it before April 8.

My head keeps saying Makhachev since he is a machine and has shown almost no weaknesses so far (he did get ko'd by a great shot in one fight but tbh everyone can be ko by a perfect punch) but then i keep thinking of how surprising Volkanovski always is.

I keep remembering that he used to be a good standard rugby player too at 215lb or so, so he can handle being physical with larger men and won't be shocked by the strength.

Myself i am leaning 60/40 in favour of Makhachev but wouldn't be massively surprised by the upset.

What does everyone else think?

Most of the guys I enjoy watching are getting older (wonderboy, Machida), and there hasn't been any new blood so far.

Several good fights and a lot of them seem to be pick'ems.

Who do people have winning?

Personally i have Adesanya losing his title - he lost to Pereira twice in kickboxing and Adesanya has never looked the same since he went up to LHW and lost. I wonder if that had an impact. Reminds me of Roy Jones Jnr after he won a HW belt and then got beaten by Tarver when he went back down.

Poirier vs Chandler should be a great fight. I'm slightly favouring Poirier but i think that Chandler has the best chance of anyone to beat the new champ. Has great wrestling and one punch ko power - if he gets past Dustin that could be a good fight.

Esparza vs Zhang should be a close fight too - totally undecided on this one

Frankie Edgar in his retirement fight will be interesting. In typical style he has taken a decent opponent and not just a glorified exhibition to go out on. An excellent fighter who is a definite Hall of Famer i think,

All in all it's a great card - you know a card is deep when Dominick Reyes is on the Prelims!

The Karate Combat events are very well produced. I do not know how much the fighters earn, but it must be at least enough to cover their costs of flying half way around the world for some of them. This year's season is a bit fuzzy on where the event was actually held, probably due to COVID-19, but in the past they rented amazing venues in different countries for it. And Bas Rutten and Marshawn Lynch won't work for free either. There is definitely a lot of money in this. Where does it come from?

You just had a child and your plan is to prepare them to be an MMA champion (or any kind of fighting machine) when they grow up. You get 2 martial arts for their childhood training, and 2 martial arts they can pick up in their teenage years. “MMA” isn’t an option.

Here we go:

Kyokushin Karate and Olympic Wrestling for their childhood training

Muay Thai and BJJ for their teenage years.

I figure Kyokushin will toughen them up, and give them a solid striking foundation.

Wrestling is brutal, it teaches strong takedowns and a strong ground game. I’m very big on muscle memory and reactive skills, so I think wrestling is a solid thing to grow up with.

Kyokushin would transfer to Muay Thai greatly, and get more into the clinch game - something I feel to be very useful.

Wrestling to BJJ covers everything there is to know (minus some throws from judo) and it wouldn’t be that hard to transfer. Many wrestlers I’ve met in BJJ transferred easily, and have more fun since making the switch.

Clearly, this quarantine has me bored!!

Personally i can't see anything other than a Colby win. Ignoring his personality he just seems a much better fighter. Masvidal, to me, just seems like a hype job. He has never really impressed me much and when he steps up in class gets found out.

Only thing that would be good from a Masvidal win would be if he won and was forced to put his BMF belt on the line vs Chimaev. With a belt like that if you turn down an opponent you should be stripped!!

What are your picks and why?

In the main event, I think Izzy will probably win. I am, however, rooting for Whittaker. Other than Jon Jones, I don't think anyone out there is capable of creating such crazy angles and being able to spontaneously be innovative from seeming horrible positions and/or situations. "Bobby Knuckles" has some really ugly technique sometimes, but THEY WORK! If you have ever seen some of his head kick KOs, he wouldn't be graded in a Taw Kwon Do school very highly, but they go to sleep! LOL! But, he has been training with an outstanding striking trainer (boxer). So, hopefully his punches won't be the big usual wide looping shots he takes...and his punches won't be coming from the ground like they have in the past...and, for goodness sake, hopefully he learns to keep the off hand up and not at his waist! When it comes to Whittaker, there is alot of fight in that dog...and Izzy has shown that he can get hurt by the bigger brawlers.

Not too excited about the down card...the co-main? Meh...not a huge fan of either guy...although their post-fight antics are sometimes funny. Lewis has shown some recent improvement in technique and a very little bit in his endurance. I am going for a "shoey" and taking Tuivasa.

Cannonier vs Brunson might be a decent fight. Going with Cannonier on that.

Poor Roxy Modafferi might be in for another beating...I hope not! I will be pulling for her!

Other than that, meh!

How about you?

Anyone else excited for this fight?

ONE Championship announced a special fight last week between Muay Thai legend Rodtang “The Iron Man” Jitmuangnon and former UFC Flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson.

The match will be 4 alternating rounds of Muay Thai and MMA.

Any predictions? I think if Rodtang comes out heavy in the first round and gets a clean shot on DJ then he'll be well away. If it goes to round 2 and then 4 Rodtang will seriously struggle with the grappling.

A critique I often read in the Youtube comment section of Karate Combat Broadcast Replays and Highlight videos is that Shotokan is over-represented. I have been doing an event by event analysis and had hoped for some more events before presenting my analysis. However, again, as observers know the last event was in 2019 and since then further events have been scuppered first by the build-up to the Tokyo Olympic Games, and now Covid-Sars-2. Yet, with another event unlikely in the near future, I thought I would present my analysis thus far.

Please note that the representation by karateka in a division is based upon the Karate Combat website as it existed on the 17th May 2020. Furthermore, the percentages in the representation by bouts fought will not add up to 100: the numbers based on how many fights contained a fighter of a style. Take for example the middle-weight division: 80% just means in 8 of the 10 fights, one of the fighters was a Shotokan Karateka.

Lightweight Division:

Representation by Karateka in Division – Total Karateka: 21

• Shotokan: 10 (47.6%)
   
  Shito-Ryu: 8 (38.09%)
   
  Goju-Ryu: 1 (4.67%)
   
  Kyokushin (Kenbukai): 1 (4.67%)
   
  Shuri-Ryu: 1 (4.67%)

Representation by bouts fought – Total Bouts: 9

Shotokan: 7 (77.77%)

Shito-Ryu: 3 (33.33%)

American Karate (Unspecified 1): 1 (11.11%)

Note: Kevin Kowalczik, the American Karate Practitioner, no longer appears to be registered as a fighter for Karate Combat at the time of 17th May 2020. Thus, his bout is registered, but he is not as a karateka in the division.

Welterweight:

Representation by Karateka in Division – Total Karateka: 19

Shotokan: 11 (57.89%)

Shito-Ryu: 6 (31.57%)

Kyo Do Kai (American Karate): 1 (5.26%)

Wado-Ryu: 1 (5.26%)

Representation by bouts fought – Total Bouts: 12

Shotokan: 10 (83.33%)

Shito-Ryu: 4 (33.33%)

Kyo Do Kai (American Karate): 3 (25%)

Wado-Ryu: 1 (8.3%)

Middleweight Division:

Representation by Karateka in Division – Total Karateka: 24

Shotokan: 17 (70.83%)

Goju-Ryu: 2 (8.33%)

Shito-Ryu: 2 (8.33%)

Wado-Ryu: 2 (8.33%)

American Karate (Unspecified 2): 1 (4.16%)

Representation by bouts fought – Total Bouts: 10

Shotokan: 8 (80%)

Wado-Ryu: 3 (30%)

Shito-Ryu: 2 (20%)

American Karate (Unspecified 2): 1 (10%)

Goju-Ryu: 1 (10%)

Note: Current Middleweight fighter, Igor De Castañeda, is stated to be a Shotokan and Shito-Ryu Practitioner. I have decided to consider him a Shotokan Karateke in my analysis due to his competition background, and his training history at the elite level.

Heavyweight Division:

Representation by Karateka in Division – Total Karateka: 15

Shotokan: 13 (86.66%)

Shito-Ryu: 1 (6.66%)

Wado-Ryu: 1 (6.66%)

Representation by bouts fought – Total Bouts: 8

Shotokan: 8 (100%)

Wado-Ryu: 1 (12.5%)

Woman’s Flyweight Division:

Representation by Karateka in Division – Total Karateka: 7

Shito-Ryu: 5 (71.42%)

Shotokan: 2 (28.57%)

Woman’s Bantamweight Division:

Representation by Karateka in Division – Total Karateka: 8

Shotokan: 4 (50%)

Goju-Ryu: 1 (12.5%)

Kan Zen-Ryu: 1 (12.5%)

Shito-Ryu: 1 (12.5%)

Wado-Ryu: 1 (12.5%)

Representation by bouts fought – Total Bouts: 2

Shito-Ryu: 2 (100%)

Shotokan: 1 (50%)

Organisation Total

Representation by Karateka – Organisation Total: 94

Shotokan: 57 (60.63%)

Shito-Ryu: 23 (24.46%)

Wado-Ryu: 5 (5.31%)

Goju-Ryu: 4 (4.25%)

American Karate (Unspecified 2): 1 (1.06%)

Kan Zen-Ryu: 1 (1.06%)

Kyo Do Kai (American Karate): 1 (1.06%)

Kyokushin (Kenbokai): 1 (1.06%)

Shuri-Ryu: 1 (1.06%)

Representations by bouts fought – Total Bouts: 43

Shotokan: 36 (83.72%)

Shito-Ryu: 10 (23.25%)

Wado-Ryu: 5 (11.62%)

Kyo Do Kai (American Karate): 3 (6.97%)

American Karate (Unspecified 1): 1 (2.32%)

American Karate (Unspecified 2): 1 (2.32%)

Goju-Ryu: 1 (2.32%)

Note: These figures include two catch-weight bouts by Shotokan Karateka not included in the division break-down.

Thoughts

By proportion of Karateka that are Shotokan fighters, to the number of bouts in which Shotokan fighters are present, the statistics do show it is disproportional. Though only 60.63% of fighters are Shotokan Karateka, a Shotokan Karateka has been present in 80.72% of fights hosted by Karate Combat. However, other styles are disproportionately represented: the lone Kyo Do Kai fighter in the organisation has been in three bouts, whereas Goju-Ryu has four representatives in the organisations but only one has been given the opportunity to fight. Admittedly, the bout numbers do not scale to the number of fighters in the organisation, however, we can argue Shotokan remains over-represented.

Ultimately, I believe, with time the other styles will become better represented. All combat leagues deal with the issue of having to use who is available, and willing to fight, wherever you are holding your event. Due to the league having a majority of Shotokan fighters in its roster, inevitably, Shotokan will be best represented at this time.

With that said, I would like to make this point: Sport-Specific Training. As we have seen with the evolution of Kick-Boxing and Free-Fighting, the conceits and assumptions that define styles and give them individual character tend to evaporate in the face of the need to be effective at the sport you are entering. Shotokan is renowned for its dynamic attacks, and these have come to define Shobu Kumite as the world knows it: no matter a competitor's background, they have had to adapt to the Miai dictated by the dynamic, long-range techniques introduced by Shotokan. Karate Combat does not yet allow elbows or knees, nor kicks between the hip and the knee, and so the Miai is like shobu kumite and American Kick-Boxing: we will see the dynamic techniques people generally associate with Shotokan dominate until rule changes or innovation start to force new approaches.[/u]

Not sure what Rizin expected out of the bout.....

https://www.karate.com/

Interesting set location.

Fights were OK, I imagine they will have to tweak the rules a bit, but pretty good really. Good showcase of kicks etc.

Thoughts?

https://blackbeltmag.com/arts/karate/karate-combat-organization-launches-full-contact-fighting-league/

7 fighters made this BBC list of fighters to watch for 2018:

Nathaniel Wood UK

Tim Barnett UK

Kenneth Bergh Norway

Alfie Davis UK

Molly McCann UK

Roberto Soldic Bosnia

Israel Adesanya Nigeria / New Zealand

Has anyone been following these guys? Anyone else you would include in your list?

I've set up to record as I will probably be out, but might be worth a watch