The match rivalry between arch-rivals took an ugly turn as Pakistan Karate team skipper Shahzaib Rindh slapped India’s skipper Rana Singh ahead of the Combat 45 clash tomorrow (Saturday).
The video of the incident went viral on social media wherein Rindh can be seen slapping Rana while on stage during a press conference on Friday.
"How was the slap bro?" Rindh said after the clash on stage.
It must be noted that Rindh created history in February earlier this year after he registered the fastest knockout at Karate Combat 44 in Mexico City. The 25-year-old stunned his opponent, Marco Cubas of Peru, with a knockout in 21 seconds during the first round.
The Karate Combat, the world’s premier full-contact karate league, event in Dubai will be hosted by former mixed martial artists Bas Rutten and George St Pierre, YouTuber Mike Majlak and renowned Indian actor Salman Khan.
The fight night will begin with the Pit Submission series featuring Craig Jones vs Andre Muniz.
The co-main event will include the Bantamweight title fight between Luiz Rocha vs Myrza-Bek Tebuev.
Meanwhile, Luke Rockhold and Joe Schilling go head-to-head in the main event.
Luke Rockhold vs Joe Schilling
Co-Main Event | Double Champ Fight
Luiz Rocha vs Myrza-Bek TeBuev
Karate vs Muay Thai
Eddie Farrell vs Raymond Daniels
Vitalii Dubina vs Edgar Skrivers
Yodkaikaew “Y2K” Fairtex vs Saidyokub Kakhramonv
Rana Singh vs Shahzaib Rindh
Himanshu Kaushik vs Uloomi Karim
Pawan Gupta vs Rizwan Ali
Adam Noi vs Ali Motamed
Huang Shuai Lu vs Ali Zainfar
Pit Submission Series - Grappling:
Craig Jones vs Rinat Fakhretdinov
Kaynan Duarte vs Pouya Rahmani
Zayed Alkatheeri vs Osamah Almarwai