Karate Combat Announces Season 3 Title Defense for Champ Josh Quayhagen

The Best Moments. The Best Athletes. Season 2 had it all!

Season 3 of #KarateCombat // Coming this spring pic.twitter.com/9QP5FPtN6Q

— Karate Combat (@KarateCombat) February 9, 2021

Karate Combat, the full-contact karate league, is sprucing up its third season this spring with a big rematch for a title.

The league sent out a press release on Thursday announcing that Josh Quayhagen (5-1 KC) will be taking on Dionicio Gustavo (5-2 KC) for the second time on the third season of Karate Combat. The organization has not announced the official start date of Season 3, but that it will come out in Spring 2021 and that it will consist of 12 episodes. Additionally, Bas Rutten will return on commentary joined by Layla Anna-Lee and play-by-play voice Josh Palmer.

Like Season 2, the events will take place in an undisclosed location, where they will be bolstered by digital scenery and landscapes transporting the fights to unusual locales. In the second season, Karate Combat “staged” fights in places including Angkor Wat in Cambodia, a futuristic version of Tokyo called “Neo Tokyo” and a fantasy Nordic setting named “Valhalla.” It is unclear if Karate Combat will return to these areas, or make new ones for the next 12 episodes.

Quayhagen is the first Karate Combat champ from the United States, and a fourth-degree black belt in Kyo Kai Karate-do, as well as a 9-5 MMA fighter in a career that spanned from 2011 to 2016. The American won the league’s golden belt against Jerome Brown on Season 2, Episode 5, scoring a standing knockout to get both the cloth belt and one more in line with major combat sports promotions.

The champ was excited about his upcoming defense, while stating that he was looking forward to the rematch, stating, “Gustavo thought he was on the path to becoming champion, which is why I wanted that fight with him. I derailed him and I know he’s been at me and thinking about me ever since, so I’m pumped to fight this rematch now that I’m champion. Being the defending champion for this one is exciting. I’m used to being the hunter but now there’s a target on my back and I like that. I know that hunger, that feeling of wanting to be champion, and it excites me knowing that these guys are all coming for me now.”