Is Kyokushin Karate popular back in North America?

[frank raud]

Kyokushin is popular in the Montreal area and through Quebec, not as popular in Ottawa. Most Karate in the Ottawa area would be based on Chito-ryu, as the earliest practicioners were from Chito-ryu(Fern Cleroux, Andre Langelier, George Sylvain). There have been several Kyokushin clubs in Ottawa(still one, I believe),but it is not "mainstream" karate around here.

 

[Damian Mavis]

If Im not mistaken I think Kyokoku (Izzy) replaced me at the Kyokushin tournament here in Thailand and did very well. Congratulations, I heard the top guys in the 75kg and under division were very strong fighters, I dont know if you fought one of them but I heard you won a couple of your fights at least, knocking out your first opponent in the first 20 seconds. On the fight card I was supposed to fight that guy (from Pakistan) but due to training injuries I had to withdraw from the tournament and he was matched up with you. Sounds like you did a better job of it than I would have!

 

[Kyukoku86]

Wow, your absolutely right it was you I replaced. It was your name I saw in the books. They didn't recieve my picture and info in time so I was numberless. But, they saw an opening(12) and just threw me in there.
But yeah my first fight was the guy from Pakistan which I don't even wanna consider a fight. The guys heart just wasn't in the ring with him. My second fight was a guy from Iran not the winner but he was pretty tough. He beat me by decision. But we got wind that the Iran team was cheating! Wrapping their shins and supposably using carpet around their ribs and legs(they also had 15 fighter when it should of been 3 or 4 to a country). Durring the heavy weight 2 Iran fighters got DQ'ed for wrapping and taking so long to unwrap his shins. So some things were pretty screwed up but not all. Overall an amazing tournament. I know it must really suck to be out with an injury.

 

[Damian Mavis]

Cheating?! I'll have to ask about that, havent been back to class since the injuries. My "team mates" were the 2 heavy weight guys that got 2nd and 4th in open weight. (Judd and Russ). Pretty amazing match up for first and second in open weight eh? Cant believe Judd got knocked out with a rolling axe kick (is that what you call it?). Not sure why Iran brought so many fighters, I'll ask about that too.

I'm sending you a pm.

 

[tko4u]

I can tell you a fighter by the name of Georges St. Pierre fights with that style, and just watching his technique makes me curious of the style, it is different from mine, but fun to watch!

 

[twendkata71]

St.Pierre is first a jujitsu stylist, then a Kyokushinkai karate stylist. Still he is a great fighter to watch.

 

[Martin h]

St.Pierre is first a jujitsu stylist, then a Kyokushinkai karate stylist. Still he is a great fighter to watch.

Other way around. He was a kyokushin guy at first, then when his teacher died he switched to BJJ.

 

[Martin h]

Cant believe Judd got knocked out with a rolling axe kick (is that what you call it?).

Mae Domawashi kaiten geri in japanese (or Yoko domawashi kaiten geri depending on with rolling kick you mean). Its ust called rolling kick or wheel kick in english.

 

[Mitchxy]

How did your fights go and are you still training in Kyokushin and is there a Kyokushin dojo in Thailand

 

[Damian Mavis]

I was mortally wounded (limping for the last 3 weeks before the fight) during training with the heavy weight champions Judd and Russ. Bad luck..... so I didnt get to fight but the tournament went really well. There were 4 place winners for light weight (75kg and down) and 4 for heavy (76kg and up) and all the places except 2 were taken by Iran fighters. Judd got 2nd and Russ got 4th for heavy weight.

The place we train is actually a shaolin kenpo kungfu school (more like martial arts , that also trains military special forces and swat police and K1 fighters like Peter Aerts, Nick and Bob Sapp. However it has taken a serious lean towards kyokushin since Judd (trained by Mas Oyama himself) came to work for the school. I like the kungfu, like the muay thai and like the Kyokushin so Im happy. I still train but usually only once a week since its a 2 hour bus ride to another city (Pattaya) to get there and my school keeps me in Bangkok (I run a TKD school).

I encourage anyone that trains kyokushin and comes to Thailand for a trip to visit the school and train.