@Azam: Though I certainly don't want to discredit the experiences you might have been through, I would like to ask the following:
1. Have you ever damaged your knuckles by punching someone's face? I'm not talking about my own experiences, but let's say I saw someone else pull off a pretty fight-ending move by doing just that -- without having to see a doctor afterwards.
First fight I ever had in my life & not of my own doing - I didn't understand that strong hands are important - punched someone full force repeatedly - didn't feel anything for the first couple of minutes, he didn't go down then it hurt - but for the next few days my hands were stiff & in pain, couldn't use them for days after.
Once adrenaline wears off, you feel it & in cases where the guy you're fighting doesn't go down right away - it's not so smart - I'd rather not leave stuff to chance.
2. You stress "COMPETITION" but have you ever had a leisurely fight with a Kyokushin guy? I have, and regardless of what you imply between the lines, their head punches plus their defenses towards head punches suck like a blowfish out of water, even when I -- a boxer -- get to set the rules.
I thought it was obvious in my post lol that I am a Kyokushin guy....so I frequently spar with KK guys & Muay Thai guys at our gym - although I haven't been sparring in a while since my knee injury. Yes head defence & punching may not be great - but Kyokushin is a bareknuckle art - KK guys & boxing gloves don't go well - I can tell you that from experience, till today I don't use them - many KK guys have this experience - it's because defence changes drastically - people who do fight bare knuckle will pick up on it - those that don't aren't any the wiser --- also I wouldn't be surprised if a boxer like you finds that defences suck since KK is not an art of only the hands - generally experiences will differ from dojo to dojo with KK - for example most KK dojos in London spar kickboxing & knockdown ruleset - this is for IKO1, IFK, Kyokushin Union etc etc - this might not be the same in a dojo in another part of the country - if a dojo focuses solely on knockdown then I wouldn't be surprised if they suffered with head punches/defence.
3. When it comes to karate, it seems to me that you would recommend Kyokushinkai, Shotokan... or anything else that TS might fancy. Right? But honestly, why would you say such a thing? Where did you last see a shotokan master beat a kyokushinkai master? If there is anything practicably useful to learn from karate's ways and means, then I believe that kyokushin already got the gist of it.
I think that's a bit of a definitive statement to make - I'm a Kyokushin karateka through & through but personally I don't think any style of karate is greater than the other & I'd have no problem telling fellow KK karateka that I don't think it is the strongest karate - because I genuinely don't nor do I think KK has the complete gist of Karate. Shotokan has some really great stuff that I feel is neglected in mainstream KK - specifically pertaining to technical stuff on stances/transitions/posture etc etc - that is often not really focused on when it should be.
Uechi ryu is another style I greatly admire - specifically for the way they incorporate parrying which I feel is probably one of the most important things to learn as a karateka - take mawashi uke for example - it's non existent in KK application wise & not even really delved into & in sparring also probably because it involves grabbing- even though it's probably one of the most useful parries you could learn - old school kyokushin karateka focused a crapload more on open handed parries - today in KK - you rarely see open handed parrying even though it's in the syllabus - much of it is close fisted & also the way that countering is taught in styles like Uechi as an extension of parrying (much like in Goju & shotokan) you rarely see it taught to that depth or degree nowadays in KK - but it was prevalent back in the day.
Even look at the way sanchin kata is practised in goju or uechi ryu - nothing of the sort exists in Kyokushin - comparing it to the KK version - the KK one looks primitive at best.
And this comes from a guy, that literally has watched tons of KK & knockdown footage, read nearly every technical book for KK & in most cases has had to sift through tons of footage to gain technical scraps from great fighters that aren't really common knowledge - like most KK guys would tell you Narushima is probably one of the greatest high kickers in KK, but hardly many guys will know why this is or even what he's doing different to everyone else - in his own instructional he just touches the subject & stops at that ---- another would be Hiroki Kurosawa's low kick pound for pound hardest low kicker but most don't know why he kicks so hard (all about his posture) - this isn't just secluded to KK but to all Karate styles, I've done the same for Uechi ryu, Shotokan even more obsessively recently & to a lesser extent Goju - if Karate was a girl I'd be stalking her lool that's how obsessed I am with learning technical karate knowledge - and in the case of KK I know technically it isn't the strongest karate style - they all have areas they neglect although that might not always at times extend to fighters. What I'm trying to say is that it's come from a place of thought my stance on karate not just saying it for the hell of saying it.
I think to make such a definitive statement, you need to know what all Karate styles have to offer - shotokan has a lot to offer, so does goju & uechi etc.
4. You imply that karate is limited in terms of clinches and ground fighting. Of course so is Muay Thai, not to mention my beloved boxing. But then again, that's why I cross-train in judo...
I don't understand what you're implying here.....lol I study Judo for that very purpose as well.