Competitions

The Long Beach International Karate Championships is an International karate and martial arts tournament in Long Beach, California that was first held in August 1964 by Kenpo Grandmaster Ed Parker.[1][2] The tournament is still in existence. Many great tournament fighters earned their stripes at this tournament, including Chuck Norris, Tony Martinez Sr., Mike Stone, Joe Lewis, Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, Billy Blanks, and "Superfoot" Bill Wallace.[3][4] The Long Beach Internationals is also where Bruce Lee was first introduced to the martial arts community in August 1964.

European Universities Karate Championships were the first organised in 2003 and have been organised every two years since.

The European Karate Championships are organised by the European Karate Federation each year.

The Commonwealth Karate Championships is an event that is organised by the Commonwealth Karate Federation, which aims to demonstrate that competition karate is suitable for inclusion in the Commonwealth Games. The karate federations of Commonwealth countries are invited to send their national squads to participate in the elite competition, provided that they are members of the World Karate Federation.

The Asian Karatedo Championships are the highest level of competition for sport karate in Asia. The competition is held in a different country every two years organized by the Asian Karatedo Federation (AKF) under the supervision of World Karate Federation (WKF), the largest international governing body of sport karate with over 180 member countries. It is the only karate organization recognised by the International Olympic Committee and has more than fifty million members. The AKF organizes the Junior and Senior Asian Karatedo Championships in every two years in between the Olympic and Asian Games and participates in WKF World Karate Championships which its member Japan play as a powerhouse country when it comes to sport karate vying for world titles with counterpart opponents from the powerful nations such as France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Spain and Italy in many world championships.

The Karate World Championships, also known as the World Karate Championships, are the highest level of competition for karate organized by the World Karate Federation (WKF).[1][2][3][4][5] The competition is held in a different city every two years.[6] Some of the most recent championships include Madrid in 2002, Monterrey in 2004, Tampere in 2006, Tokyo in 2008, and Belgrade in 2010.[7][8] The competition was initially riddled with controversy regarding karate styles and the ruleset.