Karate Combat Appoints UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten As New Chairman of the Live-Action, Full-Contact Martial Arts Sports League

ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands, June 22, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Karate Combat, a live-action, full-contact martial arts sports league, today announced UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten as the new Chairman of the organization. Bas Rutten's new position will have him assisting with strategic league decisions, owning commentary for each fight, participating in promotional content, as well as becoming a key spokesperson for the league.

Bas was an enthusiastic early supporter and contributor to Karate Combat as both an advisor and commentator, helping to shape the early vision for the league.

"Karate has always been an instrumental part of my life, so the decision to team up with Karate Combat in 2018 was a no brainer for me," said new Karate Combat Chairman, Bas Rutten. "Karate Combat is embracing cutting-edge crypto and AR technology, delivering the new experiences expected from young sports fans today, and distributing all of its content for free across platforms. I'm thrilled to be the league's new Chairman and excited to share my passion for this sport with more and more Karate Combat fans globally."

Karate Combat recently raised $18M to help increase engagement between fans and sports leagues globally using XR technologies and web3 tools. The funding helped support the May 12th launch of the league's iOS and web applications and the $KARATE token. The $KARATE token was launched on the Hedera and Ethereum blockchains to facilitate governance voting, and allow community members to play and compete in the League's innovative Up Only Gaming system. Since the May 12th launch, there have been over 100,000 downloads of the mobile app and more than 20,000 wallets now hold the $KARATE token.

"It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Bas from day one, first as a partner, and now as Chairman," commented Robert Bryan, Karate Combat Co-Founder. "Seeing Bas become Chairman of the league was the most natural and seamless decision for the league, and I'm excited to continue growing the Karate Combat community by his side."

Karate Combat is hosting the next "KC40" live event in Miami on Saturday, June 24 where Bas will be the live commentator.

About Bas Rutten:
Sebastiaan "Bas" Rutten is a Dutch retired MMA, Karate and Taekwondo black belt, and Muay Thai kickboxer. He was a UFC Heavyweight Champion, a three-time King of Pancrase world champion, and went on a 22 fight unbeaten streak (21 wins, 1 draw) before retiring in 1999, with one final return to competition (and victory) in July 2006 to complete his illustrious fighting career. Bas was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2015.

About Karate Combat
Karate Combat is a rapidly growing full combat sport and the world's premier full contact striking league, blending the excitement of live-action, full-contact Karate with immersive CGI environments powered by the Epic Games Unreal gaming and virtual production engine. Olympic medalists and national champions from around the world are just some of the elite black belts invited to compete in eight different weight divisions in pursuit of a Karate Combat World Championship. The league is streamed and broadcast to over 100 countries worldwide. Karate Combat is owned by the Sensei Foundation, a Cayman Islands Foundation Company, and Sensei Ltd, a Seychelles international business company.

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