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Cory Schafer is an American martial artist and combat sports regulator. He is the President of the International Sport Karate Association.

Background
Cory Schafer earned his black belt in Wado-Ryu Karate in 1982. While successfully establishing himself as a martial arts competitor and kickboxing trainer his interests moved towards officiating. During his tenure as the chief official and arbitrator for the FAME (Florida Affiliated Martial Arts Events) tournament circuit, he began working his way through the certification levels as a kickboxing official. By the mid 1980’s Cory had earned his “A” level judging certification, necessary to officiate professional world title events.

The US Open World Martial Arts Championships
Since 1983 Mr. Schafer has served as a co-director for the US OPEN World Martial Arts Championships. The US OPEN now draws more than 3,500 participants from over 40 countries and has its’ finals aired live on ESPN2.

International Sport Karate Association
Moving on to serve as an ISKA (International Sport Karate Association) Event Representative at both the national and international levels Cory also earned his certification as a kickboxing referee. While further developing his role as a kickboxing official, Schafer continued to teach martial arts regularly at his professional studio, and expand his involvement in sport karate as director of the US OPEN World Martial Arts Championships.

After gaining years of experience in all aspects of officiating, Schafer was asked to become the chairman of the ISKA Official’s Certification program. He instituted a new certification protocols and led seminars and clinics often coordinated with some of the world’s highest profile events. Since 1990, Schafer has presided over world title contests held throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa.

In early 1997 he was offered, and accepted the position as President of the ISKA. His goal was to help fairly and safely advanced combat sports and competitive martial arts.

K-1
In 1999, when the prestigious K-1 corporation opened their operation in North America he was asked to participate as their rules director and chief official. He developed an officials’ certification program for both judges and referees and helped institute changes in procedures that are used today, both here in America and on the K-1 world tour.

World Combat League
2005 marked the launch of the World Combat League. This project, helmed by Chuck Norris combined a martial arts combat sport with a unique team and league presentation format. Cory Schafer was selected by Mr. Norris to be the WCL Commissioner, responsible for writing the sport’s rules, supervising the events and consulting on all aspects of league operation.

Strikeforce MMA
In 2006 Mr. Schafer took on the position as Rules Director for Strikeforce (mixed martial arts) which appeared on NBC, Showtime Networks and CBS television networks during its seven year run. STRIKEFORCE’s "Shamrock vs. Gracie", California's first regulated MMA event, broke the previous record for largest audience at an MMA event in North America, with its 18,265 in attendance.

GLORY World Series
2012 marked the launch of Glory (kickboxing), a global kickboxing promotion aimed at the sport's most talented athletes. GLORY’s North American launch occurred in 2013 with a series of development events called ROAD TO GLORY. Mr. Schafer was contracted to consult on, and supervise the regulation of this project. This led to his position being extended to Rules Director and Event Supervisor for entire GLORY WORLD SERIES tour. To date Mr. Schafer servings as the ISKA event director has overseen globally televised events for GLORY in Tokyo, Zagreb, Istanbul, Dubai, New York, Los Angles, Denver and Chicago.

Bellator MMA
In August of 2014 Cory was recruited by Bellator MMA to serve as their Director of Regulatory Affairs working closely with the company’s leadership and acting as liaison between Bellator and the presiding athletic commissions. In 2016 he wrote the rules and official’s clinics for Bellator Kickboxing which launched the same year with remarkable success.

Unified Rules of Kickboxing
Throughout 2016 and 2017 Cory served on the Association of Boxing Commissions committee tasked with developing, and presenting for approval a “Unified Rules of Kickboxing”. In August of 2017 he presented the committee’s recommendations in front of nearly 50 combat sport’s commissions and the official Association of Boxing Commission’s Unified Rules of Kickboxing was approved by unanimous vote.