Jason Connell and Sal Rodriguez discuss Karate’s historic debut at the Olympic Games as well as the Gold Medal Match between Tareg Hamedi (Saudi Arabia) and Sajad Ganjzadeh (Iran) which ended with a disqualification (DQ).
Welcome to Just curious media. This is let's talk Cobra Kai. I'm Jason Connell.
Sal Rodriguez:
And I'm Sal Rodriguez.
Jason Connell:
All right sound we are back for a very unique and special episode.
Sal Rodriguez:
Yeah, this is like, out of the universe, but in the universe. It's weird. It's sort of a hybrid story. It belongs with us. It's here with us. But it's not really an avenue we've gone down before. Now.
Jason Connell:
This story really harkens back to the Karate Kid and all the talk of D queues and disqualification in tournaments as Chad McQueen Dutch was DQ from the tournament or headshots or legal or not. And we are talking about most recently, karate debuted in the Olympic Games and 2021 although they're caught on the 2020 games, because that's when they were supposed to be but in the gold medal match for the men's 75 kilogram which is 165 pound, there was a DQ at the grandest stage sound and it went viral.
Sal Rodriguez:
Yeah, a couple things. First of all, remember DQ is disqualification not Dairy Queen. Now you fast food lovers. If you're like me, an MMA fan, what you saw at the Olympics with this event, and how it ended and whose hand was raised, it is the opposite of what you would see yes, in a mixed martial arts match, because the guy who was laying on the ground, knocked out, won the gold.
Jason Connell:
Yeah, it's very interesting. This took place in Tokyo, August 7, Saturday. Now what they do sell. And I learned this by watching the fight is in the Olympics, they shrink down from five weight classes to three weight classes. So some fighters will be in different brackets, for instance, this is the 75 kilogram was what they call it. So that's 165 pounds. But you might go against fighters that are 90 kilograms, near 200 pounds, 198 pounds. And that's the case here. By the way, there was a big difference in weight between the two fighters. And there's a big age difference too. Now that's less uncommon, but one was 23. One was 29. Of course, one of the fighters was Saudi Arabians Tarek hamady. 23 years old, and then Iran's Sajjad Ganja 29 years old, and he's a little bit bigger man, they actually fought in the pool play to a scoreless draw. So they've seen each other, they fought each other, got injured. I was a bigger guy stronger, wants to get him in close where comedy is much faster. Yeah, leading
Sal Rodriguez:
up to the knockout from my perspective, and they were you know, sitting in my apartment. It looked to me like God Janae was winning. It looked like he had a hamady on the ground and knocked off his feet a couple of
Jason Connell:
times. Yeah, he did some sweeps. He has the strength he gets Yes. And you're right. But how many score three points on one takedown early and had that three? Oh, lead?
Sal Rodriguez:
Yeah. And you know, I don't know the ins and outs of scoring. In karate. There are these little subtleties. Again, if I watch an MMA match, I'm pretty well versed at this point. But if I watch a pure karate match, I don't know a lot of the ins and outs. So a lot of the rules and regulations.
Jason Connell:
Yeah, exactly. And points are very interesting. There's an icon and that's worth three points. And that's what Hamid has scored. There's a Yuko one point which ganja did score because it was for one when the decisive blow took place. And there's a two pointer called lazarey. So very interesting. And by the way, so the entire match is called a coup Matej. Now Kuma Tae came to mind right away because in the movie Bloodsport. It's a name given to the deadly underground full contact fighting tournament to which the main character Frank Dux, John Claude vondom, is clandestinely invited. So I knew that name and I was like, Wait a second, that's from Bloodsport. Anyway, that sets the stage for this fight. And so why don't you tell us then what took place?
Sal Rodriguez:
Well, what happened is a comedy kicked gun today. In the face. Yep. knocking him out. lay them flat on his on his back cold. Yeah. And it was an interesting kick. Because it he kicked and knocked him out with his lead leg. Left foot. Yeah, an interesting kick. I mean, gotcha
Jason Connell:
is also kind of going in and examine guarded like, it was like the perfect storm. Yeah, he went in for something. And holiday is much faster. That's the difference in six years and probably what 15 pounds difference maybe 20. And comedy, his reaction was elation. He kind of jumped in the air. He was like, you know, because he connected and he knew it immediately. I don't believe he knew how bad he heard him
Sal Rodriguez:
initially. Well, also in the moment, as soon as that happens, the very instant is was he aware like oh no, that's it. I'm not going to win the gold you think he knew?
Jason Connell:
No, I don't think he knew because that's where the controversy kicks in. Because they say he kicked him too hard. And that warranted to DQ the disqualification, which now again, this is for the gold medal. This is whoever wins is going to get gold. Whoever loses is going to get silver. They'd already had a scoreless draw. You can't have a scoreless draw here. And I think there was also this other sequence if they did tie holiday had some other lead.
Sal Rodriguez:
Oh, some tiebreaker. Yeah, tiebreaker, some sort of tie breaker he was
Jason Connell:
going to win. So he could have just played it safe. He's up for one. But I wouldn't say Sal, that he through this wicked thing. He just caught him. And it was the perfect storm, like guys going in, and he's defenseless, and he's going into something wild as powerful kicks coming at him. It wasn't like he kicked through him. So I was shocked that he was declared,
Sal Rodriguez:
yeah, if it were MMA, he would have knocked him out. And then went in for that final hammer fist. Right? Yeah, the ref would had to pull him off. Yeah, no, this was more more sportsmen. Like he did an about face and walk the other way. I mean, he knew that he was over as soon as it knocked him out. He knew there was over the he did stop. He didn't need to be stopped. Yeah, yeah. I wonder what's going through his mind then. I mean, you kick too hard. I mean, I wouldn't look at that and assume he had tried to do that. Like that was intentional. Like, trying to knock me that's
Jason Connell:
not a covert guy. This isn't Dutch going out for revenge. He popped him and in this much like the Karate Kid, much like all Valley, they break them up right away. You know when ganja day was taking a holiday down? How many days ghee was getting all torn up and pulled out because, you know, gone today had a hold of him and was doing the leg sweeps and and they break they immediately you see them they drop their gloves that go to the spots? They're red squares, or rectangles or whatever. So yeah, it wasn't MMA wasn't crossing the line. I don't know why they did it. And it's not a good precedent for the debut of karate at the Olympics, because obviously fans were not happy. And not to mention, hey, you just got knocked out Sal, come get your gold medal. I wouldn't say gone today's happy about it.
Sal Rodriguez:
You don't want to win that way. Nobody wants to Well,
Jason Connell:
I would have loved to seeing gone today give Hamid day. The gold and they switch?
Sal Rodriguez:
Wow. Interesting. Well, it would have to be that would just be ceremonial. And yeah. You know, what's really cool is when I watched this, I think I think I've been to that arena because when I went to Tokyo, I saw sumo wrestling I made it a point to watch sumo. Wow, I'm pretty sure it was in that very arena, where we saw a sumo wrestling now, when something controversial happens in a sumo match. And I learned this as a Westerner. When something controversial happens, the crowd takes their seat cushions and throws them down to the mat. So if there were a crowd there, if there were a crowd, that it would be entirely possible that people could have gotten their cushions and thrown it down there onto the mat, that place would have been covered. So part of the problem is that the authorities, let's say the powers that be they don't want the public perception, whether it be MMA and 93, or karate in 2021 Olympics, they don't want people to think, Wow, this is violent. You gotta maintain a certain image because obviously, as a debut, you got to appeal to the people. Hey, look at karate, but it's not all blood thirsty, right? Look at sports, you know, you have to let people know that it's sports. And if you see a guy get knocked out, oh, that doesn't look so good.
Jason Connell:
It's true. There's that fine line. And it's a judgment call. I don't think it was malicious. It wasn't as if he had been warned. And he had been doing that the entire time. Now, I did not see Hamid a fight in other matches. So I don't know if this was part of his demo. I just know he was highly touted. The guy is incredible, Sal. That's for sure. He's the man to beat now. 23 He'll be in the Olympics probably again in four years. So our egg maybe it'll be three years just to get back on track. Right. But it's unfortunate, but if anything, it brought more eyeballs on karate.
Sal Rodriguez:
Yeah. And that's why we're here today. As an MMA fan. It's exciting for me, but as a Cobra Kai and Karate Kid fan, very exciting to see karate finally make its way to the Olympics.
Jason Connell:
Yeah, absolutely. It really is. And you know, now that we're gearing up for all Valley on Cobra Kai season four and again, we haven't seen one in a while we've only seen three historically and the Karate Kid Cobra Kai universe. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this. If karate was not just in the Olympics in an all Valley. I'd probably watch it more on TV.
Sal Rodriguez:
Well, I got news for you. I got news for you, Jason. Okay season for COBRA. I in the valley. I believe Robbie will be fighting to re comedy.
Jason Connell:
Robbie, look out.
Sal Rodriguez:
Robbie does have the new hairstyle
Jason Connell:
though. Oh, that's true. Mr. Robbie, protect your face. Keep your hands up. Anyway, a lot of fun. I hope you guys watched it. I watched some of the Olympics, but it was always on replay, of course because I'm not on the Tokyo timezone. So that's it. So just a little tie in there something new for us to cover. We had to cover all things karate are loosely based to the Karate Kid or Cobra Kai.
Sal Rodriguez:
Well, this does open up a whole can of worms. I mean, it's totally possible. We're gonna start having to cover karate stuff now.
Jason Connell:
Yeah, I'm in let's do it. Yeah,
Sal Rodriguez:
I mean, if they have some sort of karate tournament, you know, locally, aside from the all valley of course, the fictional Valley but an actual karate tournament. You know, one of us may have to pay a visit.
Jason Connell:
Let's start doing podcast before and after. When I test for new belts.
Sal Rodriguez:
Yeah, that's exciting. I'd like to do some ringside cageside commentary when you're testing for your new belt.
Jason Connell:
I love it. Let's do it with belter. You know, and have keto. I am yellow training for green and am Taekwondo. I'm green training for blue.
Sal Rodriguez:
Nice. All right. Yeah. I want you to take video I told you before that I want you to take some video of you train for your I do testing for your belt. I do you never send it to me. Well, I have to show you in person. All right, let me let me check it out. All right.
Jason Connell:
So thank you so much for listening and please be sure to subscribe to Let's Talk Cobra Kai wherever you get your podcast. You can also really help us by giving the show a five star rating on Apple podcast
Sal Rodriguez:
and for all your listeners and enjoy sharing your thoughts. You can leave us a review on Apple podcasts, send us a direct message or post a comment on our social media which is at let's talk Cobra Kai, as well as at just curious media.
Jason Connell:
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