Karate Combat

Just watched the Miami fight night. You can watch it here for free:

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?

Looks like mainly Point fighters going full contact, didn't see any Kyokushin at all, mainly Shotokan karatekas which surprised me.

I watched a bit of the first one. It didn’t do much for me after the effect of good production wore off. Maybe I didn’t like the particular fighters’ style of fighting?

I’d rather watch Kyokushin or Enshin’s Sabaki Challenge. Hopefully Karate Combat will grow and more fighters will step up and deepen the talent pool.

After watching the fights I have to agree with Bulltahr's statement. Point fighters fighting full contact.

They did not follow up most of the time when they got their opponents in a vulnerable position. They fought in wide stances and lunged in almost hoping to win a point.

I probably would not watch that again unless they get away from the point sparring mentality.

IMHO... Boring! Big Yawn!

I enjoyed it as something different, but at the same time I can see it not being for everyone. Also, there is a very obvious lack of depth to all of the divisions that exist thus far. Very few that I have seen have readily adapted their Non-Contact talents and abilities to this new format.

I generally use two litmus tests for any new sport. The Heavyweight division, and the division with the most obvious talent. The heavyweight division can be both bloated, and shallow, at the same time due to weight control not being an issue.

Of the heavyweight division thus far; it is not good. It comes across as two ironclads swatting at each other with under-powered guns. Some promising wrestling, and interesting power moves, considering they are Karate Players but the striking exchanges have been sub-par thus far. I would argue a relatively middle of the road Nak Muay, or a decent Dutch Kick-boxer would have taken apart what I have seen with relative ease. This hurts to type, because the heavyweight competitors are not names to sneeze at in the world of competitive karate.

Rafeal Aghayev is the only Welterweight I watched who has adapted well, and even he made some odd choices tactics wise. However, his Non-Contact approach has always been reliant on Head-Movement, Sweeps and Throws from the Clinch, and punishing his opponents flamboyant moves with his aggressive approach. He is the lone competitor who I felt looked like he knew what he was doing. However, His age is catching up with him, and in the last couple of years his dominance at the top of the pile has been challenged. I fear it a little too late for him to truly prosper in full-contact now.

Yet, it is the likes of Aghayev that makes me think the Welterweight division is promising. It has the broadest range of talent so far, and if they can turn Aghayev into a vehicle for promoting the division it could be exciting viewing.

A definite need to open up the talent pool though, but I am optimistic that this could become something if managed properly.

It kinda looked like the Miami fight was thrown. The guy just went down, and it didn't look like the punch even connected all that well.

Did you guys see the greece fights?

I am going to watch all of them soon (Miami and Greece).

New York is on tonight.

Yes, NY tonight, I'll give them a few more fight nights before I decide on whether I keep watching or not. As mentioned above it seems to be WKF styles, point fighters going full contact. I think they would get eaten alive if they went up against some of the full contact styles......

OK, so I watched the NYC fight night on you tube. Must say it's evolving and was a bit more interesting to watch than in the past. Definitely a heavy sport shotokan influence, but it was a lot better to watch than in the past. Now if they can tweak those rules again to include uppercuts, hijis etc as legal moves......