The burgeoning karate promotion Karate Combat has found a new
broadcast home in the United States.
Karate Combat, which has aired its second season on the promotion’s
YouTube
page this season, announced via press release that it has
signed a deal with ESPN Deportes. Broadcasts on the channel will
start immediately and on a weekly basis, with the first on Oct. 22.
The broadcast will be in Spanish, marking the company’s first jaunt
into U.S. Spanish-language television. The full-contact karate
organization airs hourly episodes on its YouTube channel, with a
virtual world rendered using the Unreal Engine from Epic Games.
CEO of Karate Combat, Rob Bryan, wrote, “We’re proud to present our
full contact entertainment in Spanish in the U.S. for the first
time with ESPN Deportes. We’ve brought one of the world’s most
practiced sports to pro-level for the first time, and we’re making
it incredibly entertaining.”
This season, several international fighters have emerged including
Deivis Ferreira and Jesus Paucarcaja, with the two squaring off to
headline the first show on ESPN Deportes. The karate league
previously ran events on UFC Fight Pass, Fite.TV as well as its own
website, among other outlets. It is currently shown in the U.S. and
worldwide on beIN Sports, airing weekly on Thursday nights. The
encore broadcasts show on Sunday nights, which is when the episodes
are aired on its YouTube channel.
The second season of Karate Combat has involved a rotating
commentary panel anchored by Bas Rutten.
Play-by-play started with comedian Bryan Callen for the first three
episodes before switching to Josh Palmer, and those three episodes
also featured former NFL great Marshawn Lynch. The promotion has
advertised that additional personalities including presenter Layla
Anna-Lee and a “surprise guest from the series ‘Game of Thrones’”
will join in on the discussion.