For one thing Karate Combat avoids using the word taekwondo like the plague, and it also is last time i checked, not a searchable item on karate combat but is also sometimes used as terminology for a fighter but not other times, even in the place where you can search for any other style. my problem with it is this: 1) Taekwondo is a direct descendant of shotokan as its founder was a student of the founder of shotokan 2) itf taekwondo and wkf karate (prior to olympic inclusion) were just niche enough to be special, but clearly the highest representations of the art of karate, with wkf favoring long range takedowns and ippon style punching, and itf favoring punching combinations to set up powerful kicking techniques (to me the combination of the two “kintsugi” style is a dream) 3) the most gnarly knockouts i have ever seen in my life came from jka and the taekwondo kickboxers of the 80’s that were also golden gloves boxers.
Tomasz barada is every bit the amazing fighter that aghayev is, he’s just too old now to realistically compete in KC. There is a plethora of great talent to be found there. I would argue olympic WTF taekwondo is in the same vein as kyokushin since punches to the head are disallowed. The skills in karate combat will eventually mix. And frankly the fact that samuel erickson and damian villa haven’t performed better is baffling and unfortunate. still that being said RAYMOND DANIELS is an american karate fighter but primarily a taekwondo savant and his stuff is legendary.
Lastly as a side note I would like to advocate for lau gar, kenpo karate, and american karate to get more recruits. wako is where they all usually fight but wako is annoying. Except when raymond sat mvp down that was hilarious.