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If Karate as a whole really wants to start healing - all the organisations & styles of Karate such as Shotokan, Goju, Uechi, Shorin, Kyokushin, Wado etc etc should come together & form a worldwide competition format that's realistic & full-contact (semi-contact for those that want it) to determine who the best karateka in their respective weight classes are - it will breed competition & make all karateka more competitive but I seriously doubt that it would happen - even though Karate is meant to be Budo - Karate ironically has many personalities that are not conducive to the Budo aspect of Karate unfortunately, lets hope this trait isn't passed on from generation to generation lol.
Ryu Narushima is one of my favourite karateka - it's ashame that K-1 MAX came well after his time - but I would have loved to see him compete in K-1 MAX, think he could have done extremely well, maybe even a MAX champ - till this date I've never seen anyone in all of combat sports throw high roundhouses with the speed & power he managed to throw them with both left & right - pound for pound, I've never seen someone come close & to top it off he was tough as hell - would have loved to see him fight guys like Masato, Kraus, Buakaw, Souwer etc etc provided he had done an Andy Hug & done some cross-training.
I wholeheartedly agree that karate as a whole needs to reunite under one official competitive rule set. Something labeled purely "Karate" which is open to anyone and everyone to compete. Now whether, or not, these competitions produce some of the best strikers on earth isn't something I'd worry about. I'd want to produce a rule set that enforces clean technique in a full contact environment. Those masks for used in Kudo have led to extremely poor punching technique; I want people to rely on technique in order not to take damage. Say what you like about American Kickboxing (or full contact karate, above the waist kickboxing, ect.) but it led to some very skillful fighters with great technique, for their sport.
Karate has no reason to be any less technically beautiful than Western Boxing or Muay Thai.
Karate is in a bit of a funny place in America; Many, many Tae Kwon Do clubs operate under a banner that says "KARATE" and have students who think karate and taekwon do are interchangeable words. Many other clubs teach a mix of martial arts under the karate banner as well. A lot of karateka have never done karate here. If we changed the definition of karateka to someone who competes under the official karate rule set, that might be a start.
As for Ryu Narushima, I think he had the physical tool set to do well but there are too many variables to guess in that drastic of a sports change. He still would of been a really small fighter for max as well.
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