Kyokushin World Cup in Weight Categories

World Karate Championship in Weight Categories is the second largest competition in Kyokushin Karate. This tournament is arranged by several kyokushin organisations and usually held every fourth year in between World Tournaments which do not have any weight classes.

Rules

All world cup tournaments operates under knockdown karate rules which involves standup bareknuckle fighting with basically no protection. The more characteristical rules in knockdown karate compered to other styles is that you are not allowed to punch in the face and a point system that only count hits that actually "hurt" the opponent. This makes knockdown fighting very physical but at the same time quite safe considering that there are very few hits to the head. There can be slight variances in the rules between the different organizations responsible for a tournaments but the basics are the same. The rules has also been modified over the years.[1][2][3]

Normally knockdown rules includes

No protectors or guards are used, with exception to groin guards and teeth protection.
3 minutes match-time
The fighter that achieves an Ippon (one point) will win the match and the fight is stopped. An Ippon is achieved when an attack that knocks down the opponent for more than 3 seconds or renders the opponent being reluctant to continue the fight. An ippon can also be granted if an illegal technique is used and the other fighter is disqualified.
A fighter can also win the fight by Waza-ari (half point) which is awarded if the opponent is knocks down by less than 3 seconds and is able to continue the fight. If two Waza-aris is achieved during the fight it is counted as an Ippon and the fight is stopped.
If no knockdowns occurs, the judges can declare one fighter as winner by overall efficiency of techniques, force and dynamics.
In case of a draw there can be up to 3 extensions (each 2 minutes long). Some tournaments will also settled draws by weight different and result of Tamaeshiwari (breaking of tiles)

Illegal techniques are

Punches to the face
Kicks to the groin
Grappling, grabbing of any form
Headbutts
Kick to knee
Kick to rear of head
Pushing
Strike to spine from rear
Elbow to face

Read more about various full contact karate rules

[4]

Before split of IKO

Only world tournaments in open weight was organized by IKO (International Karate Organization Kyokushinkaikan) led by Sosai Masutatsu Oyama. After the death of Sosai, IKO was split in different fractions and several has since then started to organise world tournaments in weight categories from 1997 and onwards.[5]

All Japan Weight Category Tournament

IKO All Japan Weight Category Karate Championships is the annual Kyokushin Karate Japan Championship. It has been held in Osaka since 1984 and is held in four different weight classes. Exceptionally, the 2014 tournament was held in Tokyo.[6] Earlier in 1969, the Japanese Championships were established, in which the championship is played in the open weight class. Between 1984 and 1996, there were three weight classes: light, medium and heavy. After the first World Weight Championships in 1997, the weight classes were increased by one.[7]

Super Heavyweight (+85 kg)

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1998[7]	Kiyoyuki Shida	Yasuhiko Kimura	Gun Irisawa
1999[7]	Kiyoyuki Shida	Tadateru Sano	Gun Irisawa
2000[7]	Hirokazu Kondo	Hideki Tokumoto	Satoshi Higuchi
2001[7]	Atsushi Kadoi	Shinji Adachi	Tsuneya Ichikawa
2002[7]	Letši Kurbanov	Hideki Tokumoto	Hirokazu Kondo
2003[7]	Hirokazu Kondo	Norihito Satoh	Shinji Adachi
2004[7]	Jan Soukup	Andrei Stepin	Oleg Lukyanenko
2005[7]	Mihail Kozlov	Keiji Higuchi	Yoshiaki Uchida
2006[7]	Darmen Sadvokasov	Makoto Akaishi	Arthur Hovhannisyan
2007[7]	Makoto Taniguchi	Makoto Akaishi	Yuji Kogure
2008[7]	Makoto Akaishi	Zahari Damyanov	Kentaro Aso
2009[7]	Tadakuni Tokuda	Hideo Sawada	Tadateru Sano
2010[7]	Syoki Arata	Makoto Taniguchi	Hideo Sawada
2011[7]	Makoto Taniguchi	Seijyun Kinoshita	Norio Matsumura
2012[7]	Syoki Arata	Sergei Uvitski	Satoru Araki
2013[7]	Oleksandr Ieromienko	Kirill Kotšnev	Masahiro Ohe
2014[7]	Shōhei Kamada	Mikio Ueda	Steven Cujic
2015[7]	Steven Cujic	Satoru Araki	Kenta Nanbara
2016[7]	Shōhei Kamada	Yuta Takahashi	Tatsuma Yamagawa
2017	Goderzi Kapanadze	Oleksandr Ieromenko	Seiya Tanigawa
2018	Anton Gulyaev	Kenta Nanbara	Ryunosuke Hoshi
2019	Goderzi Kapanadze	Anton Gulyaev	Danil Goryushkin

Heavyweight (-85 kg)

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1984[7]	Yasuhiro Shichinohe	Yoshitaka Nishiyama	Shinichi Sotodate
1985[7]	Yasuhiro Shichinohe	Yoshitaka Nishiyama	Hirofumi Kanayama
1986[7]	Yoshitaka Nishiyama	Hirofumi Kanayama	Katsutoshi Iguchi
1987[7]	Yasuhiro Shichinohe	Hiroki Kurosawa	Masashi Kimoto
1988[7]	Masashi Kimoto	Takehisa Iriki	Hirofumi Kanayama
1989[7]	Yasuhiro Shichinohe	Yoshihiro Tamura	Iwao Takita
1990[7]	Tatsuya Iwasaki	Iwao Takita	Yoshiharu Eguchi
1991[7]	Yoshihiro Tamura	Yasuhiro Shichinohe	Yutaka Ishi
1992[7]	Yoshihiro Tamura	Takehiro Minami	Kiyoshi Nemoto
1993[7]	Kenji Yamaki	Kunihiro Suzuki	Hiroki Kurosawa
1994[7]	Niiho Satoshi	Kunihiro Suzuki	Nicholas Pettas
1995[7]	Tatsuya Iwasaki	Yoshihiro Tamura	Hiroki Kurosawa
1996[7]	Masayoshi Takaku	Kiiyoyuki Shida	Yasuhiko Kimura
1997[7]	Kyokushin World Championships held simultaneously
1998[7]	Atsushi Kadoi	Naoji Mikoshiba	Keiichi Hayashi
1999[7]	Shinji Adachi	Osamu Sumitani	Kentaro Tanaka
2000[7]	Kentaro Tanaka	Osamu Sumitani	Tetsuya Kano
2001[7]	Yoshinori Ikeda	Masashi Nakagawa	Fumihiro Sugiyama
2002[7]	Naoji Mikoshiba	Masashi Nakagawa	Osamu Sumitani
2003[7]	Masato Ikeda	Yoshinori Ikeda	Masataka Ino
2004[7]	Kenshin Morimura	Yuji Kogure	Masataka Ino
2005[7]	Hiroyuki Kidachi	Yasushi Itatani	Yoshitatsu Beppu
2006[7]	Osamu Sumitani	Toshihiro Kanamori	Yoshitatsu Beppu
2007[7]	Osamu Shiojima	Kengo Shimizu	Naoki Ichimura
2008[7]	Yoshitatsu Beppu	Nurmamed Mamedov	Yoshikazu Muraoka
2009[7]	Yoshitatsu Beppu	Osamu Sumitani	Kyohei Yasujima
2010[7]	Tariel Nikoleishvili	Zenjyuro Mori	Yoshikazu Muraoka
2011[7]	Kyohei Ajima	Yoshikazu Muraoka	Yoshitatsu Beppu
2012[7]	Daiki Kobayashi	Shōhei Kamada	Tatsuya Murata
2013[7]	Mikio Ueda	Koinosuke Ishizaki	Kyohei Ajima
2014[7]	Yuta Takahashi	Masanaga Nakamura	Farukh Turgunboev
2015[7]	Masanaga Nakamura	Takuya Takeoka	Yota Higuchi
2016[7]	Koinosuke Ishizaki	Takuya Takeoka	Chihiro Nakajima
2017	Chihiro Nakajima	Yutaro Ishizuka	Kyohei Ajima
2018	Andrei Luzin	Kyohei Ajima	Kashin Osawa
2019	Kashin Osawa	Andrei Tširkov	Youta Takahashi

Middleweight (-75 kg)

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1984[7]	Hideaki Kakinuma	Mitsuaki Satoh	Satoshi Yui
1985[7]	Takehisa Iriki	Hidehiko Hashizume	Jyun Miwa
1986[7]	Hidehiko Hashizume	Hideki Okamoto	Makoto Kusakai
1987[7]	Yasuhiro Kuwajima	Hidehiko Hashizume	Masahiro Oga
1988[7]	Hideki Shibata	Masahiro Oga	Takuya Akimoto
1989[7]	Hiroyuki Miake	Niiho Satoshi	Masaaki Yoshii
1990[7]	Kyouichi Taguchi	Shinegori Sakamoto	Toshiya Sasaki
1991[7]	Naoyuki Sonoda	Takhiroh Katoh	Eiji Kawamoto
1992[7]	Eiji Kawamoto	Hidenori Aoki	Shinichi Ogawa
1993[7]	Hidenori Aoki	Toshiaki Iizumi	Masanori Ngatomo
1994[7]	Hiroyuki Miake	Yoshinori Ikeda	Yoshikazu Koi
1995[7]	Tetsuo Seto	Masato Ikeda	Garry O'Neill
1996[7]	Ryū Narushima	Atsuya Fukuda	Hiroyuki Kidachi
1997[7]	Kyokushin World Championships held the same year
1998[7]	Yuji Arai	Khosro Yaghoubi	Tadashi Honma
1999[7]	Hiroyuki Kidachi	Shin Ito	Masahiro Kaneko
2000[7]	Hiroyuki Kidachi	Khosro Yaghoubi	Yoshinori Ikeda
2001[7]	Yuji Shin	Tatsuya Fukuda	Tadashi Honma
2002[7]	Shin Ito	Hisashi Noka	Toshihiro Kanamori
2003[7]	Toshihiro Kanamori	Hisashi Noka	Joji Hibino
2004[7]	Takamitsu Sakurai	Makoto Ikemoto	Adlan Abzotov
2005[7]	Tomohiko Matsuoka	Zenjyuro Mori	Atsutomo Mori
2006[7]	Zenjyuro Mori	Tomohiko Matsuoka	Dmitri Startsev
2007[7]	Yuzo Suzuki	Yuto Watanabe	Zenjyuro Mori
2008[7]	Yuzo Suzuki	Tomohiko Matsuoka	Takaichi Onuma
2009[7]	Yuta Mita	Yuichi Sugimura	Masaru Shitanda
2010[7]	Yuta Takahashi	Yuki Fukui	Tomohiko Matsuoka
2011[7]	Takuya Takeoka	Takaichi Onuma	Yuki Inaoka
2012[7]	Zenjyuro Mori	Yuta Sawamura	Yuta Takahashi
2013[7]	Masanaga Nakamura	Takuya Takeoka	Yuta Takahashi
2014[7]	Igor Titkov	Takehiro Kaga	Andrei Luzin
2015[7]	Yuta Sawamura	Yukou Harada	Kasin Osawa
2016[7]	Takuma Yamada	Kashin Osawa	Chiharu Higuchi
2017	Takuya Takeoka	Chiharu Higuchi	Takuya Yagihashi
2018	Chiharu Higuchi	Yuki Yoza	Yuki Usuda
2019	Takehiro Kaga	Yuki Shimizu	Kazutaka Watari

Lightweight (-65 kg)

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1984[7]	Masahiro Oga	Tatsumi Nakae	Haruo Nakijima
1985[7]	Kenji Midori	Hiroyuki Miake	Yoshikuni Toyoda
1986[7]	Takahiro Kajiwara	Masahiro Sakurazawa	Toshhiko Imanishi
1987[7]	Kenji Midori	Hiroyuki Miake	Hisayoshi Tsuda
1988[7]	Takahiro Kajiwara	Taichi Nishimura	Toshhiko Imanishi
1989[7]	Seiji Yamame	Toshhiko Imanishi	Hisayoshi Tsuda
1990[7]	Kenji Midori	Kensaku Yamamoto	Ken Kato
1991[7]	Kensaku Yamamoto	Masanori Nagatomo	Naoki Kuniyoshi
1992[7]	Kensaku Yamamoto	Kohtara Arinaga	Kou Tanigawa
1993[7]	Kensaku Yamamoto	Seiji Yamane	Katae Minoru
1994[7]	Kou Tanigawa	Ryū Narushima	Kohtara Arinaga
1995[7]	Ryū Narushima	Takeshi Fukuda	Nobuyuki Kamio
1996[7]	Masafumi Tagahara	Nobuyuki Kamio	Hiromitsu Takano
1997[7]	World Kyokushin Championships the same year
1998[7]	Hiroyuki Kidachi	Koji Yasuda	Masafumi Tagahara
1999[7]	Ryū Narushima	Koji Yasuda	Masafumi Tagahara
2000[7]	Masafumi Tagahara	Makoto Ozaki	Hisashi Noki
2001[7]	Yuuki Fukui	Shiro Yaginuma	Koji Yasuda
2002[7]	Osamu Shiojima	Ryo Ozaki	Tomohiko Matsuoka
2003[7]	Osamu Shiojima	Atsushi Ono	Takahiro Fukuda
2004[7]	Yuuki Fukui	Tomohiko Matsuoka	Makoto Ozaki
2005[7]	Makoto Ozaki	Atsushi Ono	Shintarou Koyama
2006[7]	Yuzo Suzuki	Makoto Ozaki	Kunitomo Kondou
2007[7]	Yuuki Fukui	Yuya Fujita	Makoto Ozaki
2008[7]	Roman Semtšenko	Nikolai Krush	Yuta Mita
2009[7]	Yuzo Suzuki	Tomohiko Matsuoka	Takaichi Onuma
2010[7]	Yuya Fujita	Yuta Sawamura	Masato Osugi
2011[7]	Yuta Sawamura	Kazumasa Aizawa	Yuko Harada
2012[7]	Takaichi Onuma	Naoya Kimura	Aleksandr Mihailov
2013[7]	Yukou Harada	Yoshimasa Tokushige	Hiroisa Nishino
2014[7]	Genki Kamei	Yuki Shimizu	Yuya Konishi
2015[7]	Yuki Shimizu	Takaichi Onuma	Yuki Yoza
2016[7]	Yuki Yoza	Yuki Fukui	Yuki Shimizu
2017	Kazutaka Watari	BeyNoah	Alexander Aristov
2018	BeyNoah	Alim Junusov	Jevgeni Gluhov
2019	Alexander Aristov	Alim Junusov	Kento Kobayashi

U.S. Weight Category Karate Championships (USWC)

The Kyokushin U.S. Weight Category Karate Championships (USWC) is the annual Kyokushin Karate U.S. Championship. It has been held in Los Angeles since 2005 and is held in four different weight classes. Previously, the All American Open was held in 1996, where the championship is played in the open weight class. In the first year, there were three weight classes.[8]

Super Heavyweight (+90 kg)

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2006[8]	Marek Kosowski	Michael Martinez	Slawomir Was
2007[8]	Slawomir Was	Luis Giralt	Daymon Miller
2008[8]	Slawek Was	Petar Martinov	Hristo Hristov
2009[8]	Marcin Sieradzki	Petar Martinov	Yordan Yanev
2010[8]	Marcin Sieradzki	Mark Berg	Joe Nguyen
2011[8]	Arkadiusz Szir	Daniel Milicevic	Kris Erickson
2012[8]	Daniel Milicevic	Mark Berg	Seiichiro Fujimoto
2013[8]	Daniel Milicevic	Matth Payne	Mark Berg
2014[8]	Daniel Milicevic	Patryk Sypien	Mark Berg
2015[8]	Mark Berg	Damian Kolano	Lucas McKinnon
2016[8]	Taiga Yanagisawa	Ryan Powell	Seiichiro Fujimoto
2017[8]	Goderzi Kapanadze	Daniel Milicevic	Taiga Yanagisawa
2018[8]	Miguel Rodriguez	Taiga Yanagisawa	Stanimir Kondov
2019[8]	Taiga Yanagisawa	Stanimir Kondov
2020	Stanimir Kondov	Woo Cheol Roh

Heavyweight (-90 kg)

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2005[8]	Luis Giralt	Slawomir Was	Stephane Parent
2006[8]	Johnny LeBlanc	Katsuhiko Nakakuki	Steven Cujic
2007[8]	Zahari Damjanov	Shohei Yamamoto	Carlos Castro
2008[8]	Masaru Sato	Zensaku Munn	Victor Potvin
2009[8]	Shohei Yamamoto	Jordan Forget	Kiril Boev
2010[8]	Shohei Yamamoto	Maxime Demeautis	Jordan Forget
2011[8]	Nicolae Stoian	Krzysztof Galka	Pasha Mykhaylov
2012[8]	Darmen Sadvokasov	Nicolae Stoian	Marek Mroz
2013[8]	Mohamed Chikh	Evgenii Savin	Nicolae Stoian
2014[8]	Tornike Kurtsikidze	Anthony Tockar	Damian Kolano
2015[8]	Mohamed Chikh	Pasha Mykhaylov	Marek Mroz
2016[8]	David Navojan	Jahnmaine Christie	Stanimir Kondov
2017[8]	Sota Nakano	Achemi Chikh	Brett Burris
2018[8]	Chihiro Nakajima	Sota Nakano	Robin Hussey
2019[8]	Igor Lyashenko	Sota Nakano	Yuji Ishikawa
2020	Yuji Ishikawa	Johnerick Sanchez	Mohammad Saleh

Middleweight (-80 kg)

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2005[8]	Katsuhiko Nakakuki	Seiji Hori	Michihiro Nagase
2006[8]	Masahiro Ito	Seiji Hori	Michihiro Nagase
2007[8]	Damian Kolano	Tomasz Pelczar	Arnold Koh
2008[8]	Stilian Petrov	Mladen Banushev	Eddie Potter
2009[8]	Nicolae Stoian	Stiliyan Petrov	Daniel Bukowy
2010[8]	Sota Nakano	Michihiro Nagase	Daniel Bukowy
2011[8]	Mirel Iacob	Michi Nagase	Mauricio Alvarado
2012[8]	Sota Nakano	Mirel Iacob	Kiril Boev
2013[8]	Shohei Yamamoto	Mirel Iacob	Skander Youssfi
2014[8]	Reece Henderson	David Tockar	Luigi Scarcella
2015[8]	Kashin Osawa	Sota Nakano	Simon Deguire
2016[8]	Sota Nakano	Enrique Mayers
2017[8]	Luigi Scarcella	Hoang Nguyen	Jiang Zhu
2018[8]	Luigi Scarcella	Hoang Nguyen	Tanner Nordin
2019[8]	Luigi Scarcella	Shosei Sugiura	Monet Garrett
2020	Anton Torres	Blagovest Petkov	Maksim Osadchenko

Lightweight (-70 kg)

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2005[8]	Tomofusa Yamakawa	Tomasz Pelczar	Masa Nakao
2006[8]	Masa Nakao	Baldalip Thind	I-Shing Wu
2007[8]	Julio Del Calle	Michiaki Motegi	Piotr Jasica
2008[8]	Alexandar Petrov	Piotr Jasica	Nikola Kirov
2009[8]	Julien Marquette	Nikola Kirov	Masashi Odate
2010[8]	Victor Teixeira	Kotaro Zushi	Adel Al-Tamimi
2011[8]	Taison Naito	Piotr Jasica	Paeden Sakauov
2012[8]	Cyril Zubarev	Sithembiso Majozi	Piotr Jasica
2013[8]	Alim Junusov	Alexander Mikhailov	Kirill Zubarev
2014[8]	Ašot Zarinjan	Tomasz Pelczar	Enrique Mayers
2015[8]	Showta Moriyama	Kohtaro Zushi	Cruz Plata
2016[8]	Alim Junusov	Showta Moriyama	Grzegorz Kedzierski
2017[8]	Alexander Mikhailov	Kirill Zubarev	Ilias Astamirov
2018[8]	Shosei Sugiura	Chrsat Allogho
2019[8]	Chrsat Allogho	Salamat Demeuov	Sergei Galkin
2020	Christian Buffaloe	Omar Mohammed Alduaij	Kotaro Zushi

European Weight Category Karate Championships

The Kyokushin European Weight Category Karate Championships is the annual Kyokushin Karate European Championship. It has been organized since 1978 and is held in four different weight classes. The first European Championships in 1978 were known as the European Championships in London.[9] After Oyama's death in 1994, the Kyokushi organization disbanded into several other organizations. The original IKO1 organization continued the European Championships under a new name in 1996. Between 1978 and 1996, there were mainly three weight classes, the light series (less than 70 kg), the middle series (less than 80 kg) and the heavy series (more than 80 kg). Exceptionally, the first European Championships had only two weight classes.[9]