The competition began with a two-pool round-robin stage followed by a single elimination stage. Each pool consisted of five athletes, with those positioned 1st and 4th seeded to Pool A, and those positioned 2nd and 3rd to Pool B. The athlete that finished first in Pool A faced the athlete that finished second in Pool B in the semifinals, and vice versa. There were no bronze medal matches in the kumite events. Losers of the semifinals each received a bronze medal.[2]
The final bout of the men's over-75 kilogram kumite ended after Iranian Sajjad Ganjzadeh was knocked out by his opponent, Saudi Tareg Hamedi.[6]
The judges' decision to disqualify Hamedi and crown Ganjzadeh as champion as he was being removed from the arena on a stretcher sparked strong reactions around the karate world, such as Karate Combat chief Adam Kovacs saying Hamedi was "robbed",[7] while others pointed out a deeper division and one-sided attacks from other karate organizations.[8]
^Hamedi was leading the match when he made an ippon kick to the head of Ganjzadeh called a hansoku, which knocked him unconscious. The judges ruled the kick was extreme and illegal, and Ganjzadeh was awarded gold by disqualification.