The World Combat League (WCL) is a full contact, team-based martial arts competition. Each team (consisting of 5 men and 1 woman) is from a different city or region: Texas, New York, Los Angeles, Oklahoma, St.Louis, New Jersey, Miami, and Denver; the league intends to grow to more cities in the United States and have both a European League and an Asian League.
The WCL is a "striking war" with short fights, to encourage an all-out style of fighting. Any striking techniques from Boxing, International-Style Kickboxing, and Full-Contact Karate are allowed. In order to maintain the fast pace of the action, clinching, holding or ground fighting (grappling) are prohibited.
The WCL was founded by movie star and martial artist Chuck Norris. A portion of the proceeds from the World Combat League are dedicated to support KickStart, a charity created by Norris to bring martial arts discipline and values to at-risk children in middle school.
Rules:
Techniques allowed
• Punching - Jab, Cross, Hook, Uppercut, and Spinning Backfist
• Kicking - Front-Kicks, Roundhouse Kicks, Side Kicks, Back Kicks, Hook Kicks, Wheel Kicks,Spinning Kicks
• Kneeing -Front and Roundhouse
Techniques not allowed
• No Throws
• No Takedowns
• No Ground Fighting
Penalized actions
• No Clinching- Intentionally tying-up the opponent's arms in an effort to stop them from punching.
• No Holding- Grabbing the opponent's body in an effort to stop them from attacking or countering.
• No Stalling- Intentionally delaying the action of a contest in any way.
• No Passivity- Retreating or circling without striking - or fighting only when the opponent attacks.
World Combat League athletes are well-conditioned, exciting professional CMA (Combat Martial Arts) fighters. In an effort to encourage consistent "full throttle" fighting action, our team presentation only requires each athlete to compete in two, three minute fights with a significant rest period in between. This allows them to fight at a pace unprecedented in combat sports. No "sticking and moving," no "jab and grab," just "pedal to the metal" fighting action.
Even the judge's scoring system and the referee's penalty point system is designed to reward this "full throttle" style of fighting and penalize any attempt to stall or fight passively.
Both teams will enter the ring and stand with each team member facing their opponent. The referee will administer the pre-fight instructions and execute the "coin toss". The coach of the team who wins the coin toss is allowed to select which fighter will start the contest. If for example, the coach chooses his middleweight, then he and the opposing team's middleweight will stay in the ring while the remaining fighters retire to the "fighter's pen" (a warm-up area close to the ring).
At the end of each fight the judge's scores will be announced, and added to the total points awarded from the previous fights. Referee awarded penalty points are added to the cumulative score when they occur. When each of the team's athletes have completed their first-half fights, the event breaks for "half-time".
During half-time the coaches will advise their team members on a strategy for improving their performance in the second-half. When the action resumes, each original match-up (that did not result in a KO or TKO) is again contested to conclude the second half. The team that has the most cumulative points when the final fight is concluded is crowned the winner.
WCL events feature CMA (Combat Martial Arts) extreme action. It's all about STRIKING: Kicking, Punching and Kneeing (think of it as "KARATE FOR THE NEW MILLENIA"). There is no holding, clinching, throwing, grappling or wrestling. If a fighter lacks spirit, or tries to slow the pace of the fight down by holding or avoiding, his team will immediately be penalized (points awarded to the opposing team).
Each fight within the team contest only lasts for three minutes, so each CMA fighter needs to "burn rubber" in order to earn as many points for their team as possible. Three judges score each fight based on knockdowns, extent of damage inflicted, and the volume of clean-scoring strikes landed. Each judge will award five points to the fighter they see as superior, and four or less points to the opponent. The judges points are combined at the end of each fight (15 points maximum, not counting penalties), and are then added to the teams overall total from the previous fights. The team with the most points at the end of the second half wins.
Teams:
There are 8 teams in 2 divisions across the United States; four in the Western Division and four in the Eastern Division.
[edit] Western Division
- Oklahoma Destroyers | Coach Dale Cook
- Texas Dragons | Coach Tra Telligman
- Denver Fury | Coach Steve Alley
- Los Angeles Stars | Coach Colin VanDuelsen
- New York Clash | Coach Derek Panza
- St. Louis Enforcers | Coach Jesse Finney
- Miami Force | Coach John Morrison
- New Jersey Tigers | Coach Danny "Tiger" Schulman
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