US Open Karate moves from ESPN To FITE
June 21, 2023
FITE has announced it will stream the US Open ISKA World Sport Karate Championship live from Orlando on July 1st. The sport’s showcase event will draw the martial art’s elite athletes and teams from all over the world, as they attempt to dethrone the existing World Champions in a multitude of disciplines, including weapons forms, Individual open-weight and team sparring, and various types of board and concrete breaking.
The renowned three-day event is in its 39th year, and attracts pre-qualified national champions from six continents.
Previously seen on cable stream and linear broadcast primarily in the US, for the first time the event will be available worldwide on the FITE platform featuring both the Saturday morning/midday ISKA World Breaking Championships, and the evening Sport Martial Arts World Championships in the most-followed World Title divisions. A World Record Breaking attempt will also grace the evening session.
“It’s estimated that 100 million people practise Karate worldwide,” said Kim Hurwitz, FITE’s CMO who possesses a Shotokan Karate Black Belt herself. “In the US, people are surprised to hear that more people practice martial arts than football, basketball or baseball – add to that families, friends and fans, and you have a massive audience to whom we are proud to present the most renowned practitioners vying for the most coveted World Titles of the art and sport of Martial Arts.”
The US Open ISKA World Championships joins a range of martial arts programming available on FITE via PPV including MMA, Muay Thai and Grappling/BJJ. In addition, FITE carries top promotions in Boxing and Pro Wrestling and other sports, both live events and thousands of hours of archival fights.