A year with unbelievable many World, European and Japan open’s – with more. We are only scratching the surface, and bring up some videos from different championships.. Photo: Okiem Sportowca
With more than ten World Championship this year many fighters fought in more than one World Championship, sometimes a win, sometimes loose. With new World Championship coming up, it’s likely the trend that World Championship is for everybody – not only the handpicked or qualified.Still there are a difference from one place to another. Photo: Okiem Sportowca
We start with a fight between Valeri Dimitrov / Bulgaria vs Yuki Okada / Japan, the quarter final 13th World Championship Shinkyokushin. Okada surprised many with solid fighting this time, and was even awarded Fighting Spirit Award. Valeri Dimitrov, the best fighter in the world for many years. He shows levels you didn’t know existed – on the mat as well as off.
In the 1st kwu open weight championship. Nikita Garas / Kazakhstan vs Jonas Rosin / Sweden. Both became world champion this year 2023 -but not in this tournament. Rosin later this day lost to Daiya Katagiri. But Rosin and Garas, went to next World Championship where they took the top spot. Rosin could not be threatened in the kwf WC, as Garas was push to the max wining his title / Kyokushinkan – Royama WC
IKO1 held their European Championship, and we picked a interesting fight in -70kg. Adam Kawka /Poland (aka) vs Yunus emre Demi̇rci̇ /Turkey. IKO1 have a different set of rules than many others, in this action fight we clearly can see some of the differences, and the hunt for scoring points.
The 8th JFKO All Japan Open holds a significant high level. The semi final in middleweight with Hotaka Yoshizawa vs Yuto Fukuchi (Byakuren Kaikan) – both are world champions and multiply podium holders in others strong tournaments. Yoshizawa moves on to the final, as Fukuchi moves on to become the 6th World Kumite Organization champion later same year.
Szymon Olpiński / Poland have been very active, and have collected several very strong results. World Champion in the 1st WKB WC, The 6th WKB EC champion, and manage to win the title in the Polish Open +90 category. But lost to Daisuke Tada in the 6th World Kumite Organization WC. We picked a special fight, a super fight between Szymon Olpiński and Genki Kamei / Japan. Held at the same time as the IKO Nakamura EC.
IKO1 13th World Championship in Japan. Konstantin Kovalenko vs Antonio Tusseau / France. In 2017 the became EC champions in each weight-class. Kovalenko runner up the the All Japan Open weight-category and in Open weight as well – Tusseau EC champion this year in weight category – like in 2022
Yuhei Ashitaka has been quite active this season. World Champion and three All Japan Open champion titles has been some of his achievements. Winning the 5th World Tournament (Kyokushin Union) before his rival Sho Shigematsu in April. They did also fight for the new “1st Open Tournament All Japan Kyokushin Karate Championship” So the 39th All Japan Open title vs Ryou Hayakawa -The last title was taken in a strong JKJO All Japan Open weight-categories.
The final in -70, 4th KWF World Championship was between Data Putkaradze / Georgia (Aka) vs Davy Brand / The Nederlands. Brand being the reign IFK World Champion 2022, and WKB EC champions 2023, and a really strong fighter. Putkaradze participated in WKO EC and the World Tournament, fought well, but early exit both times. In fight thing changes..
Salahat Hasanov / Azerbaijan are well known, hard as it gets and been in the game for a long time. Fought his way to the final in EC Shinkyokushin – in total 5 fights – we give you the first of the five – Considering how hard the first fight is vs Hugo Cruz / Spain, you can only image how hard day this will be at the office.
Patryk Sypień / Poland – well known for the Kyokushin environment. This season has been a solid one, 2nd in EC weight category, top 16 in the World Tournament, winner of Open weight EC – and we will bring you a very good fight from the Polish Open, facing a sharp Krzysztof Jelonek / Poland
Daisuke Kameyama (Byakuren Kaikan) – Oba Koki (Aka) (Mugen Yushinkai) The 39th All Japan Open Kyokushin Union. For many (maybe) this is fighters from organizations that you may not are so familiar with. The quality of fighters around the world is amazing, and it is always a joy to discover new names and environments.
Kokoro Cup pulled of a very good final this year between two profiles: David Mskhaladze / Georgia and Maciej Mazur / Poland. The Kokoro Cup have a great concept, and in these days with multiply World and European championship – this seems to survive, unlike many other tournaments. This years event was spiced up with fighter from Japan – not the top fighters, but great to raise the expectations.
The 1st WKB World Championship held in Spain, and home-fighter Pol Salguero reached the final. Being the WKB EC Champion two times, consider to be one of the favorite. Facing Sebastian Eriksson / Sweden in the quarter final.
The 13th World Championship gave us many very good fights, one of the big collides was 4th Round Paulius Žimantas /Lithuania vs Kosei Ochiai /Japan. Žimantas took his first EC Shinkyokushin title this Spring, very convincing. Ochiai – ten years among the top fighters in Japan WKO – one with the strongest punches in the game – the other one the ability to take it!