Ultimate Karate League comes to Lucknow in Dec

LUCKNOW: Ultimate Karate League (UKL) that was earlier scheduled to be held in Mumbai has been shifted to Lucknow and will now be held from December 3 to 12, at the UP Badminton Academy here.

As many as six teams, including UP Rebels would be seen in action in the second edition of the event. Other five teams, include Delhi Bravehearts, Mumbai Ninjas, Punjabi Fighters, Bengaluru Kings and Pune Samurai.

Announcing this on Sunday, Rajeev Sinha, chairman of the Indian Professional Karate Council, said that the first edition of the event was organized at Bengaluru in 2019, and the Lucknow edition of the event was likely to be a great success.

“It’s altogether a professional style of karate, involving teams instead of individuals. The event is going to set a new milestone for the people of Lucknow and if everything goes according to our plans, we can think of holding the World UKL here in Lucknow in 2024,” said Sinha, a former international karate exponent.

Petr Suja, director, of World Professional Karate Council and Jiri Kocandrle, observer, praised the facilities for the event here. “Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India, has dramatically changed over the past few years and Lucknow is emerging as a major Sports hub with substantial support from the government,” Suja said.

“This has influenced the decision of shifting the event to Lucknow,” said Kocandrle, who also admired the combat sports like UKL.

“UKL is a unique match format that has changed the individual sport into a team sport where one player is pitched against three opponents. There are three sets and each set consists of nine bouts,” said Sinha, adding, “The three sets of matches are completed in 45 minutes including slow-motion and commercial breaks.”

Each of the team consists of five male and one female player. In the event of an equalizer, the women’s individual match decides the final result. “All the six teams will have world champions and European champions as marquee players.”

All the matches would be shown live on multiple platforms across the world for two hours daily from 6 to 8 p.m. and the opening match would be played between Delhi Bravehearts and UP Rebels.