C block oozes experience, and here we find athletes who have stood on the World Championship podium on previous occasions.
The C block raises fights between some of the top European fighters versus some of the Japanese fighters and profiles. Photo by Pi-photo.pl
Ivanka Popova / Bulgaria is one of the leading names in this block. Few can push her in the European region, weight category as well as open-weight. With a walk over in the first round, she will face the winner of Tsz Ching Wong / Hong Kong vs Yuno Shimizu / Japan. Photo by Pi-photo.pl
Shimizu will be the favorite, being the reign 8th JFKO All Japan Open champion plus several other achievements. However, Shimizu gives away 20 kilos when it comes to Popova (47 vs 67) and Popova on her side do possess great pace. Can Shimizu counter Popova who likely will be the stronger of the two?
The winner will face the winner of another very interesting matchup: Berta Szalay / Hungary vs ⇓ Ren Mizutani / Japan. Szalay – European Champion and Mizutani -The 1st. International Fullcontact Karate Championship.
Again the same setting when it comes to the weight difference. Mizutani gives away over 15 kilos. That said, Mizutani have decent record when it comes to the open-weight tournaments. Berta Szalay made an impression when she won the European Championship in 2022, maybe surprised some also taking the title with good aggressive fighting. A little step back this year with “only” reaching 3rd place in the EC – what can we expect in the World Championship debut?
Aneta Meškauskienė /Lithuania and Marta Lubos / Poland have a quite similar record for the last years. However, in different weight category. The fought back in 2018, Lubos being the more explosive and sharper trough the fight secured the win after the ordinary round. In this early stage of the championship, one can expect fast decisions – so pace and intensity will weight in. Lubos got this naturally in her style;
Meškauskienė is very experienced and know what counts, been in the game for many years, and this in not the first time she is fighting in this World Championship. Four years back, made it trough the qualifying but was given an early exit loosing the first fight. Meškauskienė always seems to grow stronger into the fight – or tournament for that matter, but preliminary rounds are not for long fights. – who will be able to take the control of the fight, and secure the win?
The winner of Lubos vs Meškauskienė will face the one who breaks trough of these three: Yuna Mokudai / Japan, Camille Haddouche / France and Ayanda Dlamini / South Africa. Haddouche vs Dlamini will fight first, and a fresh Mokudai will take one the winner. Out from the record perspective and the set up, it might be tough for Dlamini to crack Haddouche, in the same way it will be hard for Haddouche to crack Mokudai. However, you must win all your fights – regardless of merits and who might be the favorite.
If we must, lean towards a prediction, we think Haddouche will face Mokudai (and if so, that will be a very interesting fight to watch!) Haddouche fought Ramu Amikawa last year; (We thought) the fight was quite even – the decision 5-0 to Amikawa. Amikawa a little more intense and higher pace – so OK.
Mokudai will be in favor of home court – that could give us Mokudai vs Lubos / Meškauskienė on sight. All this speculated out from merits, and the factors of quick decisions made on criteria as high pace and pressure / preliminary rounds decision. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that some very good fights are coming up – right from the start!
