After a victory over the Taiwan Sanda Team on the 18^th of July the Chinese Sanda Team has gone on to walk over the opposition put up by the Koreans on the 24^th, 3 nights ago. In a following team challenge match between Korean Taekwondo & Chinese Sanda Kungfu at the National Olympic Sport Centre in Beijing, the Sanda fighters have scored yet another 3 to 1 victory over the Koreans, exactly the same as the results of the previous challenges against Taiwan & Japan. 3:1 seems to have become a magic number for the Chinese Sanda Team. It seems that the Chinese have refrained from winning complete victories over their opponents, but let them "save face" by giving one match away. Good will or arrogance? You decide.

The 1^st match is the 60 kg category fight between Wang Lei, "Snow of River Changjiang" from the Sanda Club of the Wuhan Physical College & Kim Chinsak, "Golden Star of River Hangang". Wang Lei, with his kicking, striking and throwing superiority, suppressed the Korean fighter completely, opening the record with a big Chinese lead.

Following soon afterwards is the 65 kg category contest between Yang yang, "Highland Wind Kick" from Qinghai Sanda Team & Kang Pancham, "The Cheju General". Yang knocked down Kang with heavy punches less than 1 round into the match, securing another conquest for the Chinese team.

The 3^rd fight is the 70 kg category match netween Li Yongxing, "Hurricane from beyond the Pass" from Shenyang Physical College & Chang Hongyong, "King of Pusan". Again, Li easily mowed through the Korean to gain one more point for the Chinese team.

Finally comes the 85 kg category match between Li Xiaoguang, "Divine Lance of Cangzhou" from Hebei Sanda Team & Kim Chaeyong, "The Taegeuk Kid". The energetic Kim manage to win by points after 5 rounds with his sharp & aggressive offense & excellent conditioning. However observant audiences seem to get the impression that Li is often holding back, giving the initiative to Kim. Kim has thus qualified for the next round of the King of Sanda tournament.

Although the Korean side is touted by the organisers to represent "Taekwondo", a closer examination of their profiles reveal that they are actually trained in Sanda rather than Taekwondo. They have taken part in numerous Sanda matches back home in Korea. They are actually Korean Sanda fighters rather than Taekwondo experts, & thus not an accurate representation of the efficiency of Taekwondo in the Ring.

The recent Sanda victory over Full-contact Karate has also caused the Kyokushin Karate HQ in Tokyo, Japan to send a strong team of Karatekas to "promote" Full-contact Karate in Beijing & to explore the possiblity of setting up a branch in China. This will be scheduled on the 1^st of September. With the current popularity of Sanda, I think they are going to have a hard time, unless they can prove to the world that Karate is indeed an equal of Sanda. To do so they have only one choice - to redeem the honour of Karate by challenging Chinese Sanda to a rematch. Will there be more blood to be shed in the name of Bushido?

On the 17^th of July, after a delay & weeks of negotiations between the Thai & the Chinese Organisers, they have finally agreed to what format the Muaythai VS Sanda challenge would take. It would be an all out war. The Thai fighters, all champions at different levels, will be allowed to use their elbows & knees whereas the Chinese fighters would be allowed to use all their Shuai Jiao throws. Points would be given to all successful punches, kicks, elbows, knees, & throws. In other words judges from both sides will preside over the matches. There would be 6 weight category fights & 1 woman's match-up, adding to a total of 7 matches. The opening dates have now been set on the 8^th & 23^rd of September. The venues will be at the Beijing Workers Sports Stadium & the new Guangzhou Sports Stadium in Guangdong (Canton) province respectively. A delegation from the World Muaythai Council as well as the Thai Royal Family will head to China to observe this historical exchange between the 2 nations. Through this I forsee a bright future for Chinese Martial Science, & we still have much to look for forward to in the coming months. The Thai fighters, it seems, are confident of at least a 5:2 victory after watching Sanda tournament tapes shown to them by their coach. But not to be outdone, the Chinese side is sending out their best of the best Sanda fighters, including last year's King of Sanda, Liu Hailong. This war is getting so exhilarating, I'd not miss it for the world.

*Both the VCDs of this China VS Korea challenge, as well as the China VS Taiwan challenge are available now at $10 each . Those interested pls email me here.

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