This year’s November 19th , 20th and 22nd 2023 TKO State championship were held at the Sheraton
Houston Brookhollow Grand Ballroom. The TKO martial arts organization has been a force in Texas for
over 25 years serving the martial arts community with quality martial arts events and for all those years
it has grown to become a banner karate organization with a host of high end tournaments attended by
the best competitors in Texas and the world for that matter. Wayne Nguyen, founder of the Texas
Karate Organization had to scramble for an alternate location after the Galveston San Luis Convention
Center became unavailable. Eventually another premier site was found, and it served the competition
well.
The first day of competition consisted of the grappling and kickboxing portion of event. Many of the top
grapplers and kickboxers in the league were in attendance. Since the grand ballroom was insufficient for
the large crowd in attendance other ballrooms were utilized for the breaking and specialty events. The
Friday crowed was dwarfed by Saturday’s main events. During Saturday’s event there were large
numbers of top junior, adult and senior competitions packing the main ball room. All the TKO producers
were there to officiate and finalize the many divisions on the roster. I was also competing and since I
was one of the TKO Top Gun Hall of Fame winners, I can confirm this was a year of the best Sport Karate
possible at these events. Every event in 2022 I went to was well attended and run by a host of skilled
and fair black belt judges.
The whole event had a festive and holiday atmosphere because that next Thursday was Thanksgiving
Day. That did not stop the heated competition especially in the many divisions that were slated for the
nighttime finals on Sunday night. All the grappling, kickboxing, Breaking, continuous sparring and stick
fighting divisions were finalized in their designated rings with the champions to receive their state
champion rings on stage Sunday night. The rest of the events had their divisions ran off in grand
championships during the day’s tournament. The black belt junior and senior first place champions were
to be finalized in traditional and contemporary forms groups on Sunday night along with the black belt
sparring grand championships that were to be completed at the Sunday nighttime finals.
The Nighttime finals and show was a collage of competition and revelry with breaks for awards to the
producers and judges and the Top Gun Competitors. This was mixed with the competition for the 1st
place black belt grand championship competition. Don’a Pettaway was awarded a 7th degree black belt
after an amazing attempt to break an enormous stack of bricks. The grand ballroom was totally packed
and the grand championship competitors were focused on preparation for their shot at the money and
Grand Championship rings. I was also one of those in the adult traditional grands and I can tell you it
never fails to energize me to be on stage. The exhilaration you feel is nothing less than electrifying. The
hidden nervous tension does things to you, so you must intensify your concentration on your techniques
and pray the thousands of hours at practice will pay off.
Wayne Nguyen attended all the TKO events to ensure that they were ran to the highest standards. My
observations thru out the 2023 year were that the rules and standards of all the events were some of
the best I have ever attended. The TKO 2023 state championship was no different with the same
attention to competitors and standards that had been adhered to all year long. The whole event topped
off a year of great championship martial arts.
