The name and brand of Solana meme coin Bonk will soon adorn a combat sports stadium, as a result of it partnering with the president of crypto-fueled fighting league Karate Combat, Asim Zaidi, as he looks to upgrade his social media-famous gym, the Goat Shed.
With this, the Bonk Stadium is set to host half of the upcoming Karate Combat events, with the league saying that two other fighting organizations have expressed interest in using the venue.
Currently, the Goat Shed gym spans 3,000 square feet, but the new, expanded property will extend to a total of 15,000 square feet. The facility will feature a new Karate Combat Performance Institute for training and creating content, the Bonk Stadium, and increased space for Goat Shed fighters—all set to be under one roof.
Bonk’s multi-year partnership with Goat Shed and Karate Combat will see the meme coin’s branding used throughout the facility—including the Karate Combat pit and MMA cage—along with granting naming rights for the stadium. And the Bonk team can use the facility to host its own events, too.
“[This] allows Goat Shed to host a Karate Combat Performance Institute and live events under the Bonk Stadium name,” pseudonymous Karate Combat founder Onlylarping, who is familiar with the Goat Shed upgrade plans, told Decrypt. “We’ve identified the location, but we are still closing on the lease. We expect the facility to open in a couple months and to host the first Karate Combat event there in June.”
Exact details are still being ironed out, however, meaning that Zaidi was unable to confirm the capacity of the arena. That said, the average attendance for a Karate Combat event is approximately 1,000 to 3,000 people, so that may give a sense of what to expect from the venue.
Zaidi is also a combat sports coach with an all-time record of 131-18-1. As such, he trains his fighters at the Goat Shed, including ranked UFC fighter Ailin Pérez, Gillian Robertson—who has the most submissions in women’s UFC history—and Karate Combat champion Shahzaib Rind.
Goat Shed is also planning to set up a 24 hour livestream, watermarked with Bonk branding, in an attempt to further boost the gym’s virality—following a shoutout on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast and UFC star Alex Pereira recently visiting the gym.
Karate Combat will not own the facility, but the organization’s president Zaidi will be the majority owner of it. Still, the combat sports league will be running the performance institute, and has committed to holding events at the Bonk Stadium.
In October, Karate Combat launched a Hedera layer-2 network to support its Up Only Gaming app, which allows users to bet tokens on upcoming fights. Those at the top of the Karate Combat Up Only Gaming leaderboards will have the opportunity to receive “special access” to the new facility, though exactly what this entails has to be confirmed.
Equally, Bonk holders will have the opportunity to gain access to the facility to host their own events, utilize the workspaces, and possibly even win free tickets to events.
“We’ve bet Karate Combat’s future on Web3,” Zaidi explained. “I’m incredibly excited to partner with one of the absolute largest communities in the entire crypto landscape.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward
