When Kendell Ward and Paul Karns meet Saturday, they will be fighting for a belt that did not exist until Crash Combat asked for it. It is the promotion’s own championship — a pro bare-knuckle Muay Thai title at 125 pounds, with no outside federation behind it — and by Crash’s account it is the first bare-knuckle Muay Thai title fight in Kansas history. Combat Registry created a new classification, Pro BK Muay Thai 125 lb, to record it. Before this bout, the category was not on the books.
What makes it more than a novelty is who Crash matched to contest it.
Kendell Ward is the Muay Thai fighter. He trained in a small fishing village in Thailand under the late Arjarn Jai-Khaeng, who gave him the name Singto — the Lion — and went 3-0 fighting there. He came to it the long way: taekwondo from the age of six, wrestling through school and into college, culinary school after that, then Thailand. He turned professional in boxing in 2008, spent years taking hard fights on the road, and walked away from that sport disillusioned before returning to the discipline he actually loves. He coaches and manages himself, and trains Muay Thai at four in the morning before work.
Paul Karns has never fought Muay Thai in his life.
“I’m more of a kickboxing guy, more a karate type of guy. I’ve never fought Muay Thai. That’s why I’m so excited for this fight.”
So the belt will be contested by a Muay Thai lifer against a karate and kickboxing fighter making his Muay Thai debut — with no gloves.
Karns was born in Carrefour, Haiti, just outside Port-au-Prince, one of eighteen children raised by an Ohio missionary who arrived in the early 1970s and stayed. He came to combat sports through judo at fifteen, then switched to karate after losing a friendly challenge match to a karate friend, and he has preferred striking ever since. He lives and fights out of Dodge City, Kansas, training at Lopez Boxing under Miguel Lopez — the coach he credits with making it click. He notes that a win would make him the first Haitian, and the first fighter out of Kansas, to hold a bare-knuckle Muay Thai title.
“I’m bringing that belt back to Dodge City,” he says.
There is one more thing worth knowing, and it complicates the usual fight-week framing: Ward granted Karns this rematch himself. He says he did not want Karns’s career to go the way his own did.
The Main Event: A Homecoming, On Short Notice
Tucker Eastwood headlines in bare-knuckle MMA for the second consecutive Crash card. At Crash 7 he finished Nicco Hamilton by submission in the opening round. A Kansas City, Missouri native now living out toward Bonner Springs, he trains alongside Rudy Bears and Zeb Vincent and credits the level of that room for pulling him forward. His camp philosophy runs to two words: “Going hard. We’re nitty and gritty.”
Across from him, Thomas “The Sniper” Thatcher is fighting up the street from where he went to high school. Thatcher grew up in Overland Park and attended Shawnee Mission West, a few minutes from the venue. He took the main event on short notice.
He now fights out of SayLess Fight Club in southwest Nebraska, a room he describes as local kids mixed with grown men who have day jobs. Away from fighting he is a licensed massage therapist who genuinely enjoys the bodywork, and a father of eight — all of them ten or under — married to a former professional volleyball player. The family homeschools. They recently bought a bus.
“I’m just a dad out here fighting.”
Three More Belts
145 lb amateur MMA — Arlo Collier vs. Terel Jones. Collier is chasing a belt he has already fought five rounds for: at Crash 7 he went the distance in a featherweight title fight and lost the decision, and because his opponent missed weight, the title was not awarded to anyone. A win on a Synergy card put him back in line. He has trained since he was seven, after watching old UFC fights with his dad, lost his first amateur bout at eighteen, then ran off four straight decision wins. He works as an electrician’s apprentice out of Lawrence.
Jones is the harder read. “Hitman” is already a multiple-time amateur champion who treats belts as a byproduct: “I mostly like to fight the best guys that I can find.” He asked for this matchup specifically as a measuring stick for his wrestling — the first time he faced a wrestler it went badly, the second went better, and this is the next test. He trains at 316 MMA in Wichita under David Rickels, and spent the closing minute of his interview naming teammates and pitching them to matchmakers instead of talking about himself.
Every event streams live and on demand — full cards, replays, and the archive.
Watch on MMA Futures125 lb amateur MMA — Tosh Hernandez vs. David Del Real. Del Real is from Wichita and came to the sport sideways, talked into a kickboxing class by a family friend while he was still playing soccer. He drifted in and out of gyms for years before finding 316 Martial Arts, and calls it the best gym in the Midwest. “I’m always prepared, because I’m always training every single day.”
Hernandez took the fight after the original opponent withdrew injured. Born on Long Island to a military family, he lived in four places before Kansas, came up wrestling, and now trains at Lawrence Fight Club. On the move from New York: “Everything’s super calm.”
135 lb amateur kickboxing — Colin Reed vs. Christopher Fuentes. Reed’s story is the bluntest on the card, and he tells it himself: in and out of the juvenile system from the age of twelve, shot at sixteen because of the life he was living, and in a boxing gym by seventeen. “It’s humbled me a lot. Taught me a lot of lessons on life.” He fights out of Apex Combat Sports in Kansas City.
Fuentes was born in Laredo, Texas, and moved roughly six times in thirteen years before his family settled in Kansas in 2018. He joined a gym the day he turned eighteen and found Next Gen Fight Gym two years ago, where he trains under Jessica Link with Trey Santos and Isaac Doolittle — and he is direct about the debt: “I really wouldn’t be here without their encouragement and support.” He has fought twice for Crash before and credits both opponents as teachers. On what Saturday asks of him: stepping into the ring “is not something a coward can do. It’s something a warrior can do.”
The Rest of the Card
Heavyweight kickboxing gets two looks. Lino Gomez faces Jeremy Mireles, who fights out of Iron Warriors in Lawrence, and James Young meets York Wilson. Young is worth a note: a Christian fighter who builds his game on a drunken-boxing foundation, training since 2021, and preparing to move to Thailand as a full-time missionary. “True that it may not be the most effective,” he says of the style, “but I believe it’s the most fun.”
Elsewhere, Adam Flores and AJ Totta open the MMA portion at light heavyweight, Jesus Fuentes meets late replacement Xavier Flowers in bantamweight Muay Thai, Kody Conard and Markel Grady add a lightweight kickboxing bout, and Reese Johnson faces Topeka’s Carter Parrish in flyweight kickboxing to open the night. First fight is at 6:00 PM Central.
Crash Combat 8
Saturday, September 5, 2026 — first fight 6:00 PM CT
AdventHealth Sports Park at BluHawk — Overland Park, Kansas
Full Card
Card subject to change through weigh-ins.
Crash Combat 8: What You Need to Know
When is Crash Combat 8?
Crash Combat 8 takes place on Saturday, September 5, 2026 at AdventHealth Sports Park at BluHawk in Overland Park, Kansas. The first fight is at 6:00 PM Central.
How can I watch Crash Combat 8?
Crash Combat 8 streams live on MMA Futures at watch.mmafutures.com/programs/crash-combat-8.
Who is fighting in the Crash Combat 8 main event?
Tucker Eastwood faces Thomas Thatcher in bare-knuckle MMA at welterweight. It is Eastwood’s second consecutive Crash Combat main event; Thatcher took the fight on short notice and grew up in Overland Park, minutes from the venue.
How many title fights are on Crash Combat 8?
Four: the 135 lb amateur kickboxing title, the 125 lb amateur MMA title, the 145 lb amateur MMA title, and the 125 lb bare-knuckle Muay Thai title contested by Kendell Ward and Paul Karns.
What is the Ward vs Karns bare-knuckle Muay Thai title?
It is Crash Combat Championship’s own title — a pro bare-knuckle Muay Thai championship at 125 pounds, not sanctioned by an outside federation. The promotion says it is the first bare-knuckle Muay Thai title contested in Kansas, and Combat Registry created a new classification, Pro BK Muay Thai 125 lb, in order to record it. Ward trained Muay Thai in Thailand under the late Arjarn Jai-Khaeng; Karns, from Dodge City, Kansas, is a karate and kickboxing fighter making his Muay Thai debut.
