Welcome to Anger Wat: The New Season Kicks Off with a Bang (and a Knockout!)

By Tomas Greer 

On Sunday Karate Combat, launched its second season with the first event of an action packed 12 week run. This season has it all: superstar guest hosts, an undisclosed location in outer space (very COVID proof!), and most importantly, the best Karate fighters in the world. There’s even a Spinning Wheel-kicking Buddhist monk! 

With a stacked 3-bout card, the night did not disappoint. Super Bowl Champion Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch joined the always charismatic combat sports veteran Bas Rutten to call the action at Anger Wat--a virtual jungle ruin simulation created at the off-world location.  Marshawn was impressed by the action, saying, “That sh*t is real!” 

The night of fights got started in a huge stylistic clash between Jesus Paucarcaja “The Beast” Lopez versus Deivis “The Rage” Ferreras. A textbook counter fighter against an all out aggressor...What could go wrong? Unfortunately for “The Rage.”  quite a bit. Though Ferreras pushed and controlled the pace much of round 1, Jesus remained steady as he picked his shots and took opportunities when they came. In the concluding seconds of round 1, Lopez landed a huge overhand right knocking out his opponent with only 1 second left on the clock! With this big win, the Peruvian Lopez, hopes to climb the ranks in the -67 KG division towards the golden championship belt. One of Karate Combat’s signature profile introduced fans to Lopez’s life at home on the tough streets of Lima, and his drive to fight for the memory of his brother who introduced him to the martial art but was murdered by gangs at age 16.

In the second match, combat fans got two fresh faces in the pit as Stefanos “The Great” Roupakas took on Maximilian “Warrior Instinct” Mathes in a qualifier match for the league. Simply said, a qualifier fight is between two fighters who are not yet signed, and the bout will determine which will earn a multi-fight contract with the promotion. Roupakas, a former Special Forces officer from Greece as well as a pupil of point Karate Legend and Karate Combat fighter George Tzanos, was looking for his chance to shine and join the ranks of the elite in KC. On the other hand, German-born Mathes, a kyokoshin style karate fighter and practicing monk in Phuket, Thailand, hoped to have his hand raised in the end, walking away with the contract. This fight over-delivered on expectations: High flying action, a great pace, and a 3 round battle all the way through. Mathes showed aggression throughout the bout, pushing Roupakas to the limit, but the Greek was able to turn that strategy on his opponent, scoring several big blows up close. Both warriors put on a show, but Roupakas’ blade was a little sharper in this one. “The Great”  walked away with a unanimous decision victory as well as the Karate Combat contract. We are excited what this young star will do next.

Finally but certainly not least, our main event featuring a -75 KG Championship eliminator fight between Jerome Brown “The Brown Bear”  vs. Abdalla Ibrahim “The Joker.” The winner of this match will go on to face either Josh Quayhagen or Reda Messaoudi for the -75 golden belt. This match between Jerome and Abdalla was one of the more heated matchups in KC’s history, this one definitely had some bad blood. We can’t exactly pinpoint where this feud stems from but the two just do not like one another. Could it be Ibrahim’s cocky disregard for rules?  The match set for a weight at 75 KG’s, was not at all what we got at the weigh-in. The tension was so thick in the room you could cut it with a knife. “The Brown Bear” stepped on the scale perfectly at 75 KG even, while “The Joker” showed up at a whopping 85 KG. This is no joke. Obviously a huge discrepancy between the two weights, both sides agreed to have a catchweight bout at 80 KG. Ibrahim was given a grace period to make that weight and he did. Showing up overweight was  just one of the offenses committed by Ibrahim during fight week-- He also only arrived at weigh-ins barely 12 hours ahead of time and  missed several fighter meetings.

All the drama and antics aside, this fight definitely lived up to the hype. Every round being as close as could be, both men landed many devastating blows throughout giving their opponent everything they had. As the fight came to an end it seemed Jerome Brown lost a step and became completely winded. During the fight winner announcement, Brown collapsed to the canvas as Anger Wat was left silent, looking on, hoping to see Jerome get back to his feet for a decision. After a few moments, with the help of medical professionals, Brown was able to get to his feet and a decision was made. In a very tight split decision, Jerome Brown had his hand raised in victory, as Ibrahim looked on in disbelief. “Man, something isn’t right with him!” said Marshawn just as Jerome dropped again.  But Jerome collapsed again minutes after the decision and was rushed to the ICU. 

Many have called this a controversial decision, as it always is in a fight this close. Jerome Brown will go on to fight for the title in his next bout. Let us know who you think should have won.

This concludes episode 1! We hope you enjoyed it, and if you haven’t got the chance to see it, you’ve gotta watch it (and you can here).  We’ll be back at the same time, same place for the next 11 weeks so don’t miss out on the action. Until next time, OSS!