Flashback: 12th Kyokushin World Open Tournament IKO1 Final (VIDEO)

Boec.COM continues with the articles about some of the finest Kyokushin fights that ever happened.

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Yes, we’re talking about the final battles of the biggest competition in Karate Kyokushin – the World Open Karate Championship.

Some of the biggest legends have participated in the tournament – Makoto Nakamura, Kenji Midori, Akiyoshi Matsui, Ewerton Teixeira, Andy Hug, Zahari Damyanov, Valeri Dimitrov and many, many more.

Following the death of Masutatsu Oyama in 1994, IKO (International Karate Organization Kyokushinkaikan) split up in several fractions. The World Open Tournament has continued to be held but organized in parallel by IKO1 and WKO (World Karate Organization Shinkyokushinkai).

The 2019 Kyokushin World Open Tournament was the last one so far. The 12th edition of the tournament was once again held in Japan, as 164 karatekas from 38 countries participated in it.

For the first time in 16 years, Japan had a finalist - Mikio Ueda, who faced Aleксandr Eremenko from Russia.