arnold sports festival kumite classic usa kickboxing wako wako usa

WAKO USA Nationals at Arnold Sports Festival

October 1, 2024by Bill Viola Jr.0

WAKO NATIONALS

Arnold Sports Festival to host The 2025 WAKO USA National Championships through Innovative Partnership with Kumite Classic

The Arnold Sports Festival (ASF), the world’s premier sports and fitness exhibition, will host the 2025 WAKO USA National Championship and Team Trials in a strategic partnership with Kumite Classic February 28th to March 1st, 2025.

ASF is widely known as the largest multi-discipline sporting event in the world attracting over 100,000 attendees to Columbus, Ohio annually. The event, which pays homage to Arnold Schwarzenegger, has transformed from a bodybuilding show in 1989 into the mecca of the fitness industry today. Kumite Classic, a Pittsburgh-based martial arts promotional company, is poised to present a new generation of martial arts competitions, highlighting USA Kickboxing as the anchor competition at the Ohio Expo Center. The weekend will include kickboxing, karate, tae kwon do, tang soo do, kung fu and wide variety of combat sports.

Kumite Classic president, Bill Viola Jr., brokered the partnership between USA Kickboxing and the Arnold Sports Festival. Kumite Classic is notable for hosting the most prominent sport karate-centric expo in North America from 1999-2017. In 2023 Viola Jr. was appointed Chairman of WAKO USA tatami sports under USA Kickboxing. Since then, he has been leading a committee to expand infrastructure and strengthen affiliations for the organization. According to Viola Jr., “Every kid dreams about competing in the Olympics someday. WAKO gives them hope.” USA Kickboxing is the only U.S. organization in the sport of kickboxing to have IOC (International Olympic Committee) & AOC (American Olympic Committee) recognition.

In the words of Bill Viola Jr. (taken with permission from COMMONSENSEI)

“How did I get into the production game? It all started with a BANG 💥⚠ 🚗 Car CRASH. A careless driver in a box truck literally rear-ended my dreams — Fractured neck 😱 😥 🤕 (summer of 1999). It was earth-shattering. In my early 20’s I had just graduated from the university of Pittsburgh and was the defending Gold Medalist 🥇National Champion at the USA Karate Federation. I had Olympic Aspirations and just coming into my prime. Fighting was the only life I knew. Now my new uniform was a neck brace. Diagnosis from the doc, “Don’t fight anymore.” My heart sank into my shoes and the walls closed in. I had never looked past karate — ever. To complicate things, I had to have surgery on my esophagus. Years of stress had caught up with me and I needed a fundoplication. I was 😡 at the world, and needed a reboot. So I followed an old saying, “Go West young man.”

I took a leap of faith and moved to Los Angeles to learn the entertainment biz 🎥. What?!? I wanted to be a promoter just like my father. You see, my dad invented the “sport” of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in America, long before the UFC. I grew up around “lights-camera-action” and it planted a seed. I thought Hollywood 🎬 was the ticket. My degree was in Political Science, so my friends and family were skeptical to say the least. I borrowed my dad’s swagger and walked in like I owned the place. I had instant success. Confidence is contagious, there is no other explanation. SAG card in hand, I worked with A-listers; everyone from Britney Spears to Arnold Schwarzenegger, and all along the way, despite my decision, no one was prouder of me than my father. I knew a conventional job wasn’t for me.

I went to Hollywood 🎬, crushed it, and came back a new man. I missed my college sweetheart (and future wife), my family, and dojo. I set up my own Production Company in Pittsburgh and so began a new chapter. I refused to let this car crash define me. What should have “broke me; woke me.” It took some Cali🌞for it to sink in.” READ MORE