Karate Combat Week 7 - Main Event

by Toni Gannon

For last night’s Main Event, Karate Combat featured a 5-round fight between reigning champion Edgars Skrivers, “The Bear Slayer” vs the Myrza-Bek Tebuev, “The King” in the 67 kg category. The question on everyone’s mind was will the Bear Slayer retain his Golden belt against challenger Myra-Bek Tebuev, or will The King take the throne?

Keeping in mind that Tebuev trained really hard to study and to defeat Skrivers, additionally with a five-inch height advantage over Skrivers, we saw that anything was possible in the pit. Getting under way with an explosive Round One, Skrivers immediately came alive, pushing his opponent, with Tebuev answering with some strong kicks. As they danced across the pit, Tebuev showed good sequence, even though marked up a bit by the Champion.

The Ref broke the two apart, warning about each watching each other’s head. Tebuev being more aggressive, but Skrivers landing and connecting more. The Second round showed Tebuev tightening up a little bit and staying more in the pocket. Both were showing beautiful technique, with Tebuev showing great movement, as it is hard to hit a moving target. Josh Palmer noted that both fighters were essentially putting on a clinic for all to see, but would they be able to continue this for another nine minutes? 

In the third round, Skrivers immediately began to charge forward, with zero wobble. As he previously said, he needs pressure to perform, and this match did exactly that. As The Bear Slayer continued to connect with Tebuev, one forearm to the head, then a spinning wheel kick literally changed the game as the match was unexpectedly called by the Ref, allowing Edgars Skrivers to retain the Championship.

Layla Anna Lee interviewed our Ref Sam Amidi  on why the fight was called with a TKO, and Amidi stated that “as (Tebuev) stood up, his corner man assisted him and assisted him getting into the pit, and it’s a sign and an indication that we need to be calling this fight.”

Bas confirmed that “If you can’t walk down the pit to fight, then you can’t fight.” 

Congratulations to Edgars Skrivers for a 3-0, and we can’t wait to see who – if anyone – can take the Gold Belt from Skrivers.