The organizers have uploaded the full 75 minute event to YouTube:
I know there was a previous thread about Karate Combat when it was first announced and they had their first event, but this is different enough and significant enough for it to deserve its own thread in my opinion.
Thoughts:
A lot of the silly stuff, like the exotic cars and the over-the-top trash talk, is gone. Same with the talk from the commentators about "real-time DNA monitoring" and other literal nonsense.
It's very obvious people are coming from karate. If you're a karateka and know what you're looking at, you're definitely seeing karate technique and strategy. The allegation many people make that when karate folks do a full contact event, "all you get is bad boxing," definitely wasn't true here. For example...
While it is full contact, the referees were much faster to stop a fight than in some recent UFC events. This is a personal preference thing, but I appreciated that this didn't end with blood smeared all over the canvas and both people looking like they'd gone through a car crash without a seat belt.
The main event was profoundly anticlimactic (ah well, this sometimes happens in any athletic event), but several of the fights leading up to it were really good to watch.
I know there was a previous thread about Karate Combat when it was first announced and they had their first event, but this is different enough and significant enough for it to deserve its own thread in my opinion.
Thoughts:
A lot of the silly stuff, like the exotic cars and the over-the-top trash talk, is gone. Same with the talk from the commentators about "real-time DNA monitoring" and other literal nonsense.
It's very obvious people are coming from karate. If you're a karateka and know what you're looking at, you're definitely seeing karate technique and strategy. The allegation many people make that when karate folks do a full contact event, "all you get is bad boxing," definitely wasn't true here. For example...
A lot of people will claim that Tebuev got his KO with a sloppy haymaker, but when you watch the replay, it was a textbook ridge-hand, striking with the forearm just above the wrist
While it is full contact, the referees were much faster to stop a fight than in some recent UFC events. This is a personal preference thing, but I appreciated that this didn't end with blood smeared all over the canvas and both people looking like they'd gone through a car crash without a seat belt.
The main event was profoundly anticlimactic (ah well, this sometimes happens in any athletic event), but several of the fights leading up to it were really good to watch.
