Video: Combat sports analyst Robin Black talks Karate Combat, Gamebred FC, and future of martial arts

Combat sports analyst Robin Black likes to say his role is to “analyze human movement,” which he does for Canadian sports channel TSN, as well as Bellator.

But recently, Black has ventured outside of the traditional MMA world for roles with the all-striking Karate Combat, which debuts its third season on July 1 on CBS Sports Network, as well as Gamebred Fighting Championship, which features bare-knuckle MMA and held its first pay-per-view event this past Friday.

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Black talked about the unique action provided by both promotions and how their futures may help impact what fans can expect from combat sports.

“To me, we are entering the martial arts era – not necessarily moving out of the MMA era, but MMA is not going to just simply dominate like maybe it has for the last while,” Black told MMA Junkie. “I think we are moving into the martial arts era, you know, whether that’s karate, like Karate Combat – I mean, I was in Myanmar before they had, you know, the turmoil that they’ve got right now, commentating a thousand-year-old martial art called lethwei that has headbutts and bare-knuckle. You know, people are interested in sumo right now – like we are entering the martial arts connoisseur era, and you know, I’ve just been quietly sitting there trying to learn as many different things about it, follow my passion, learn.

“I have have turned over the rocks and learned the little things and do it in an honest way where I’m trying to – and it feels like a pretty good time to be obsessed with all of the little elements of fighting, because there’s so much of it happening, and I think it’s we’re seeing a little decentralization. The last 20 years, we saw kind of a centralization, whether it’s HBO or different boxing organizations, the UFC and mixed martial arts. I feel like we’re seeing a decentralization of that right now, and that’s pretty exciting if you’re a martial arts nerd.”

Check out the full conversation in the video above.

      

Related Stories

• Belal Muhammad wants Colby Covington next: 'You got your jaw broken and you've been sitting on the sidelines'
• Belal Muhammad wants Colby Covington next: 'You got your jaw broken and you've been sitting on the sidelines' - Enclosure
• 'Minotauro' Nogueira not surprised Anderson Silva bested Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.: 'We expected this'