On the evening of June 26^th 2004 we came to the Foshan Sports Stadium in Canton to witness the continuing battle between Sanda & Full Contact Karate. This time, the Chinese managed to invite the original full contact guys - fighters from Kyokushin Karate to fight with their Sanda Kings.

These Kyokushin guys are from Royama's group are more qualified to represent the true full contact style, more so than the Daidojuku guys of the past two challenges. The result of this battle, consisting of 5 weight categories, was unsurprisingly one-sided - the Chinese annihilated the Japanese 5 : 0, and among the 5 bouts the Chinese won 3 by TKO.

The first bout of the evening was the 70kg category fight between Yang Zhiqiang, a winner of last year's China VS Japan Freestyle Tournament 2003, and Mingcheng Yusi (pinyin translation), a runner-up at Royama's Kyokushin-kan Open Tournament. But because Kyokushin rules forbids striking to the face as well as all forms of grappling, Mingcheng was obviously not used to Yang's grappling range attacks. Yang was able to use his throws to their best effect. In the first round Mingcheng was already dazed after taking a few tackling throws from Yang. In fact, the Kyokushin guys had expressed difficulty in fighting under Sanda rules even before the event. Although they tried to do some special remedial training to prepare for this, it was not as simple as one imagine when it comes to actually applying it in the Ring. As Yang was able to win the first round easily, he became certain that an offensive throwing strategy would seal the fate of Mingcheng. This was again verified in the second round and the rest of the bout. One of Yang's leg-hooking throw was so crisp that it managed to send the crowd into a cheering frenzy. And so Yang was the first to open the gates of victory for the Chinese Sanda Team.

The second bout was the 75kg category bout between the invincible Baoligao, who was fresh from winning the World Sanda Kings 2003 last December, and Donghailin Liangjie, who had won the Kyokushin-kan All Japan Weight Category champion for his class this year. It was obvious to everyone that Baoligao looked bigger and heavier than the Japanese - another sign of weight manipulation by the Chinese? In fact, all five Chinese fighters looked bigger than the Japanese team! The home crowd cheered Baoligao towards another high. Facing these odds it was all Donghailin could do to stay calm and fight the menacing Baoligao. The first round began with both fighters cautiously testing each other out. But with the help of the thunderous crowd, Baoligao became braver and finally broke the deadlock with a series of furious combos, forcing the Karateka into a corner. Donghailin could only try his best to cover-up and defend himself. He tried to throw a left front kick, which Baoligao grabbed and countered with a right cross to his face, causing him to crash to the canvas with blood seeping out from his mouth. Although he managed to stand up again with much difficulty, he had obviously lost his sense of direction as he raised his fists not towards Baoligao, but towards the referee! We have to admit Donghailin is a tough guy as he continued to fight or rather take punishment till the fourth round. In the end he was still declared TKO by Baoligao's heavy punches, bringing the bout to a spectacular finish.

The third bout was the 80kg category bout between Liu Hailong, the original Sanda King of Kings and Shuigu Xuan, who was fired up to win after the Kyokushin team lost two bouts in a row. Shuigu aggressively went head to head with Liu right before the bout, when the referee was explaining the rules. We could see his eyes were filled with blazing fighting spirit, but could he match up against the best fighter in China? At the start of the bout Shuigu charged towards Liu, and both ended up on the canvas. However that appeared to be all Shuigu could do.

Soon after that Liu landed a left high round kick squarely on his head, instantly sending him down to the canvas. At that point, the Karateka simply lost all his drive. A few exchanges later Liu landed another solid right cross on Shuigu, this time really knocking him down flat. Although he was saved by the bell, by the second round he had lost all his fight and became Liu's sandbag. Moments later Liu landed yet another left-hook on the Japanese, and he had nothing else to do except to kneel and kowtow in complete defeat.

By now the Chinese had won this Sanda VS Kyokushin battle, but seeing how strong they were, we expected them to win the rest of the bouts no less.

The fourth bout was the 85kg bout between Wang Xunyong, a hometown fighter of Foshan, and Xiayuan Wang, who offered some hope for the Japanese to at least win one bout. True to expectations Xiayuan landed a right reverse punch in the face of Wang, making the first Chinese fighter bleed profusely that night. However, a bloody face did not devastate the fighting spirit of Wang, but under the cheering of the home crowd he became even fiercer than normal. Technically he did not look much better than the Karateka; it was his aggression, forcing the Japanese into a corner several times and not giving him too many chances to counter attack that won him this bout. The Kyokushin team knew at that point that this night was totally lost to the Sanda team.

The fifth and final bout was the 90kg category bout between Mongolian Sanda fighter Qinggele and Kazakhstan's Tom Pishev, who won a second runner up in the Kyokushin Russian Open. Tom, who was supposed to be a foreign legionnaire for the Japanese Kyokushin team, turned out to be a blank as he was quickly disposed of by Qinggele's right high round kick to the neck, effecting a perfect TKO finish for the Chinese that night. Yet another massacre for full contact karate, and being of the Kyokushin style made little difference. Final score: 5 : 0 for the Chinese.

*The VCDs of this Sanda VS Kyokushin challenge, titled Flames of Foshan, is available now in RM (real player) format at $5. However the last bout (90kg category) was not recorded. Those interested please email me here.

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