Fighters Enter the Pit! Karate Combat Moves to the Next Level
The only mainstream full contact karate league kicks off a new slate of fights— live and on demand— from its own secret budokan, combining real action with the throwback video game production fans love. The first event, Karate Combat: Evolution, includes the first ever title fight for the Golden Belt; Streams live September 21 at 7:00 PM ET
Karate Combat has announced a new slate of fights to take place in the league’s secret budokan, KC-1. Karate Combat: Evolution will take place on Saturday, September 21, with two more in 2019 and a regular schedule to be announced for 2020. Bas Rutten continues as an ambassador and commentator, veteran commentator Kenny Rice will join him.
Expanding on its first successful year of fights which were viewed by millions of fans, Karate Combat’s new season doubles down on a love for 80’s martial arts video games and movies through its Hollywood-level productions. The league will also elevate its fighters, building off their adventures and origin stories in the real world, to make fights more engaging and give fans stand-alone content around their favorite karateka.
Fights are full contact in the Karate Combat Fighting Pit, at 3 rounds of 3 minutes (5 rounds for title fights). Knockouts are encouraged and frequent. Karate Combat has become a favorite of the world’s best karate fighters, who enjoy the chance to fight without holding back as they have to in sports karate.
The Main Event at Karate Combat: Evolution will be the league’s first ever title fight for the Golden Belt. Luis “Pitbull” Rocha (Brazil) faces. Edgar “The Bearslayer” Skrivers (Latvia), who have a deep history with both karate and full contact fighting.
“How can you not love Karate Combat?” said Bas Rutten, Karate Combat Ambassador and commentator. “Now we’ve taken the intense, full contact action and added even more of that Street Fighter-type, 80’s movie fun to the production at KC-1, the league’s secret budokan. And hell, we’ve still got the Pit!”
The new events will live stream on the league’s site karate.com. Distribution partners have included UFC Fight Pass, FITE, USA Today, YouTube, Twitch, Titan and Eleven Sports. Past events have been praised by Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Bleacher Report, Sherdog, MMA Fighting, The New York Times, Mashable, CBS News and CNN.
Karate Combat: Evolution will also feature a co-Main Event Dionicio “El Capitan” Gustavo (Dominican Republic) vs. Joshua “Preacher” Quayhagen (Louisiana, U.S.A.). The whole fight card is packed with world champions and medalists. Altogether 17 countries will be represented on the card, including French stars Davy Dona and Alexander Bouderbane, Spanish stars Igor de Castaneda and Fernando Paz, and champions from Russia, Egypt, New York City and more. Two women’s fights will take place: Nadege Ait Ibrahim (Algeria) vs. Omaira Molina (Venezuela) and Ana Luiza Ferreira da Silva (Brasil) vs. Stephanie Kaup (Sweden).
Karate Combat events are VIP only. Guests at previous events have included combat sports luminaries Lyoto Machida, Luke Rockhold, Fabrizio Werdum, Frank Shamrock and FaZe Sensei.
Karate Combat: Evolution
Streams live September 21, 2019 at 7:00 PM ET at karate.com.
More info and fight replays always available on demand.
