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| (Image Source: Bloody Elbow/Karate Combat) |
Five years after its inaugural live event on Miami’s world-famous waterfront, premiere full-contact karate league Karate Combat is returning to Miami, Florida with a trio of all-action events. MEDIAPRO Studios will serve as the host venue for the hottest property in combat sports when it returns to Miami with its unparalleled live event experience, blending live action with CGI virtual production built on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. Two world titles will be on the line in the dual bad-blood rematches forming the co-headline bouts of Karate Combat 38 on April 1, 2023 which will kick off the league's trio of events in Miami.
Middleweight champion ‘Turbo’ Ross Levine will lay his belt on the line against Spanish antagonist Igor ‘The Iberian Bull’ de Castaneda in a fight which will reignite one of the most intense rivalries in Karate Combat history. When Levine and De Castaneda were first matched in a title-shot eliminator in Karate Combat: Season 4, the dislike was instant and mutual. When De Castaneda took issue with Levine’s “arrogant” social media posts, a war of words turned into a feud which led to the two having to be separated at a press conference before their heated battle, which Levine won by TKO. Levine went on to take the belt from then-champion Shahin Atamov, while De Castaneda scored a brutal stoppage win over Franklin Mina at KC36 to reassert himself as a middleweight contender threat and book a rematch with his American rival.
In the co-headline bout, Irish bantamweight champion Eoghan Chelmiah and Peru’s Jesus Lopez will pick up where they left off in December when their five-round KC37 title war concluded with an officiating error which saw Lopez incorrectly announced as the winner when the scorecard totals actually favored Chelmiah. Fuel was added to the fire due to many of the crowd - and live broadcast viewership worldwide - feeling that the judges should have had Lopez as the winner of the fight in the first place. Certainly the Peruvian gave Chelmiah by far the toughest test of his Karate Combat career to date - and now heads into the rematch inflamed by a sense of injustice. “There’s nothing fight fans love more than real rivals who have genuine bad blood, and for our first event of 2023 we’ve got two of the deepest I’ve ever come across. The Lopez vs. Chelmia drama feels like a story from a book which unfolds in front of our eyes. Both of these co-headline bouts have ‘Fight of the Year’ potential - and it’s our first card of the year," said Karate Combat President Adam Kovaks.
Kovaks added, “Igor de Castaneda cannot stand Ross Levine and is haunted by that loss to him. Jesus Lopez sees himself as the king without a crown and has no intention of going to the scorecards this time. Eoghan Chelmiah also has a point to prove, so this one is going to be wild. These are two very real fights between two very real rivals. This could honestly be a pay-per-view, that’s how massive the top of the card looks, but we'll keep them free for our fans around the world.” Bouts for Karate Combat 39 - taking place Saturday, May 20 - and Karate Combat 40 - taking place Saturday, June 24 - will be announced in the near future along with further bouts for the April 1st Karate Combat 38 undercard. Stay updated on Karate.com and Karate Combat's official social media accounts for news and announcements on these events and more.
