Guest Post: All-Japan Knockdown Karate Preview 2020
The following article is a guest submission from friend of the site The Kyokushin Analyst (TheKyokushinAnalyst on YouTube)
Opinions expressed in this piece are the author’s alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Fight Site staff.
The world of Knockdown Karate is split into two warring organizations: IKO1 Kyokushinkaikan and Shinkyokushin WKO.
Following the death of Mas Oyama in 1994, legal battles over what to do in the aftermath split the knockdown world. Shokei Matsui took charge of the Kyokushinkaikan (Mas Oyama’s original organization) while Kenji Midori formed Shinkyokushin. Both groups hold separate tournaments every year.
Despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, both will be holding their All Japan tournament with reduced capacity. The All Japan is an open-weight tournament held annually. The best of the best compete in single elimination fights of three minutes each with two possible extension rounds in case of a draw. Participants must fight multiple times over two days in order to win.
Whoever wins the All Japan usually wins the World Open giving it special significance.
Shinkyokushin
The Shinkyokushin (WKO) All Japan is an Open Weight tournament that will take place on November 21-22nd . However, due to concerns related to COVID-19, this year’s competition will be significantly scaled back in size. Top international fighters are unable to participate this time, making 2020’s tournament an all-Japanese affair. The reigning champ who has dominated Shinkyokushin for the better part of 8 years Yuji Shimamoto will not be participating this year.
Now, in order to compensate for the lack of foreign talent, fighters belonging to the Japanese Full Contact Karate Organization (JFKO) will be allowed to compete. The JFKO is a smaller regional Japanese organization that allows all styles to compete under knockdown rules. Their participation brings some much needed depth to the tournament in the absence of Europe’s best Shinkyokushin fighters. The event will be streamed on the Line and SAIKYO apps for a fee of 3000¥.
Despite this years smaller talent pool, there are still several Shinkyokushin fighters taking part that are worth your attention.
Yuto Fukuchi
WFKO lightweight champion
WKO world cup 2012 lightweight champion
WKO world cup 2016 middleweight champion
4th JFKO All Japan middleweight champion
29th All Japan lightweight champion
2nd in the Seidokaikan 2016 lightweight Open, losing to Rise Champion Kosei Yamada in the finals.
Yuto Fukuchi is the top fighter from Osaka-based Byakuren Kaikan style. He’s a nomad of sorts, fighting in most major organizations that allow crossovers. Fukuchi has had a truly remarkable career in the weight category tournaments, and his experience taking on the best of the best across several different top organizations is rare; knockdown karate is otherwise extremely tribal, with most karateka never fighting outside of a single organization.This will be a huge asset to him going into the tournament, as most fighters will have not faced such varied competition..
Fukuchi is a counter fighter with an amazing arsenal of diverse kicks and knees, but his relatively small size is a major weakness in this open weight tournament. Fukuchi is a Middleweight who has often competed at lightweight. Still, Fukuchi has a great chance to win if the brackets play out in his favor.
Kembu Iriki
11th World Open Second place
49th All Japan Open second place
48th All Japan Open Champion
46th All Japan open second place
45th All Japan Open third place
1st WFKO International Tournament super heavyweight Champion
Iriki is a Shinkyokushin staple, having competed in most major tournaments since 2012.
A flat-footed Heavyweight who prefers to fight in the phonebooth, Iriki relies on hand fighting and hard low kicks to slow his opponents down, and uses step-in low kicks to land brutal liver punches. Iriki has fought the who's who of Shinkyokushin time and again, so experience is on his side. Iriki should do very well with the shortened brackets due to a smaller tournament size.
Daiki Kato
12th World Open 3rd place
50th All Japan open 3rd Place
49th All Japan open 4th place
1st WFKO International Tournament Heavyweight Champion
2nd JFKO All Japan Weight Tournament Heavyweight Champion
A natural middleweight who bulks up for the open weight tournaments, Daiki Kato still often places in the top eight, coming incredibly close to winning the All Japan on many occasions. Kato has won numerous weight titles at heavyweight but is of small stature. Kato makes up for his small stature with amazing lateral movement and footwork, often defeating much larger opponents by staying on the outside and picking them apart. Kato also possesses a deadly spinning back kick and spinning heel kick. Expect him to keep a high pace and outwork opponents.
Kyokushinkaikan
The Kyokushinkaikan (IKO) 52nd All Japan will be held on November 28-29th 2020. Covid-19 has forced most of its top fighters to sit out this year. The defending champion Mikio Ueda will not be participating. Top heavyweights Shoki Arata, Yuta Takahashi and Shohei Kamada will also not be fighting. This presents an interesting opportunity to the lighter weights and upcoming fighters to prove themselves this year. Kyokushinkaikan is considered by most to be the top organization, but its lack of cooperation with other orgs has hurt it this year. While Shinkyokushin has gotten additional talent from JFKO, Kyokushinkaikan will have to rely on its smaller fighters. This will be the first year the ShinKyokushin All Japan will have more diverse talent. The tournament will be streamed here
Ryunosuke Hoshi
12th world open 6th place
Baltic open cup 4th place
35th All Japan super heavyweight 3rd place
Ryunosuke Hoshi is the highest ranking Japanese Heavyweight participating this year. He placed sixth in the world open tournament last year. Hoshi is a puncher who relies on his size and durability to win fights. He utilizes vicious step up knees to the body to wind opponents. With most of the top heavyweights not participating this year, It's Hoshi's tournament to lose.
Konstantin Kovalenko
16th European openweight Champion
2018 European super heavyweight Champion
2017 European super heavyweight champion
12th world open 5th place
2019 Russia Cup second place
2017 Russia Cup second place
48th All Japan open 6th place
Kovalenko is the only other fighter in this tournament to place in last year's world open. This makes him a heavy favorite, especially with scaled back competition. Kovalenko is a combination fighter with an insanely powerful rear leg round kick. He fought the best of the best for years in Europe, including top fighters Alejandro Navarro and Eremenko. He has fought much harder tournament brackets in Europe and is a heavy favorite to win this year's All Japan.He will greatly benefit from starting in D block with fellow Middleweights. It’s customary to give the tournament favorites number 1 and the final number. This ensures they will be in opposite brackets and only meet in the finals. In this case Kovalenko was given the final number 48. Hoshi was given number 1, I am very hopeful for a finals showdown between the two titans.
Takehiro Kaga
36th All Japan Middleweight Champion
32nd All Japan Middleweight 4th place
31st All Japan Middleweight 2nd place
2017 All American Open 4th place
Takehiro Kaga is a very accomplished middleweight. He has a great mentor, training in the same gym as Kyokushin's finest middleweight champion Zenjuro Mori.The absence of most of Japan's top heavyweights presents a big opportunity for Kaga to secure an open weight title win. Kaga relies on lateral movement and leg sweeps to defeat his opponents (under Kyokushinkaikan rules a perfectly executed sweep can result in Ippon).
Kaga is an extremely gifted defensive fighter. I expect him to utilize the sweep rules to his advantage. Much like Yuto Fukuchi his main problem is going to be handling the heavyweights deeper into the tournament brackets. Kaga is my dark horse pick for this tournament.
Final Thoughts
Covid-19 has turned the world upside down, the karate world was no exception. I would argue that in and of itself is exciting, the title is up for grabs this year. With both reigning champions sitting out it's anyone's game. I am excited to see who will rise to the occasion and to see the lighter weights get a chance to shine.
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