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What are the rule differences? I'm largely ignorant on the subject so what was it that changed to cause less well rounded footwork etc. ?
a lot started to specialized in the knockdown ruleset. the rules haven't changed apart from a few details like no grabbing but what he means is that a lot of the successful fighters these days focus entirely on that rule set. So because of no head punches but body shot they focus even more on body conditioning and fight like tanks going into each other rather than trying to move around to avoid hits.
It's a different approach and style. The Russians are especially good at that.
Tayski pretty much hit the nail on the head. There isn't really a difference in terms of rules (at least small exceptions like no grabbing anymore) but a complete turnaround in the approach to it.
Watch any knockdown karate footage of today universally among all the KK organizations you'll see basically two guys with very little movement, spamming punches/kicks until someone let's up or makes a mistake - compare that to the 80's-90's where you saw lots of movement, angles (offensively/defensively), great focus on technical skill (most of the guys at least I think of with the best technique all originate from the 80's-90's period).
Of course you have a few guys today that are the exception like Darren Stringer, Valeri Dimitrov, Nesterenko et al --- but none of them move imo as well as guys from the 80's-90's like for example M.Thompson, Masuda, Kazumi etc etc. I think that's more to do with the state of knockdown karate now because they are all equally talented imho but they are in a sea of guys who sit & hit.
The only exception you can make an argument for is Tsukamoto but people tend to forget he is a 90's knockdown fighter (he started KK in the 90's & trained alongside Kenji Yamaki, Kazumi, Midori etc) and that his instructor was Hiroshige (arguably KK's best instructor) - so his mentality is that 90's approach hence why he's soo technical & focuses on movement.
The Russians are definitely the best at it but I feel the technique/movement gets devolved some bit by that approach whereas size/conditioning/toughness takes the forefront.