SOUTH PARIS – When he wanted to get serious about competitive full contact karate, Michael Governale literally jumped in with both feet.

Though just 16-years-old, Governale began competing in the 18-and-up men’s division. He took a lot of punishment from men at least 10 years his senior, but he was determined to test the boundaries.

“At that point, I was doing really well in the junior division, and as far as a challenge, I’d rather have a tough fight that I didn’t win than an easy fight that I just stomped on the guy and didn’t learn anything,” he said. “I think it’s made a huge difference.”

Who could argue?

The 22-year-old Shaolin Kempo Karate black belt from Norway will be in Rochester, NY on Saturday defending his middleweight title at the American International Full Contact Karate Championships.

Governale won the Canadian International Championship three years ago and finished second in the American International Championship two years ago, losing to Quebecois Dominic Duclos. Last year, he knocked off Duclos in the final to win his first American IFK title.

“It’s different going in there after having won last year. I feel an obligation to defend that, to win again,” said Governale, who has been a black belt for about four years.

Governale took up karate nine years ago. A brother-in-law was a brown belt who took him under his wing, and after about six months of training, Governale impressed his instructors enough for them to recommend he try it competitively.

“The first time you get in the ring, the adrenaline rush is amazing,” Governale said. “You get tunnel vision, you can’t hear anything, and everything seems to be going kind of in fast forward and slow-motion at the same time. It takes a lot of year and a lot of competing to get to that point.”

He competed as a lightweight for a number of years, then received a rather unexpected, and brutal, introduction to the middleweight class.

“It just so happened at one tournament that I was about two pounds over the cutoff (154), and so they bumped me up to middleweight which…it’s not very fun if you’re at the bottom of the weight class,” he said. “I was giving up, like, 30 pounds to the guy I fought. So I decided after that if I’m going to fight middleweight, I’m going to gain 10 or 15 pounds.”

“Every single strike is bear-knuckle, so it’s punishing no matter what,” added Governale, who now fights at 172 pounds. “I think as far as the speed of the guys, the lightweights fight a little bit faster and a little bit harder.”

Governale works in computers and is an assistant instructor at Oxford Hills Karate in South Paris who devotes time to the Oxford Hills Karate Child Safety and Self Defense program, but hopes to compete more in the coming year. Right now, he competes in two to five tournaments per year.

He trains with a number of other competitors from Oxford Hills Karate full contact team Dracos who will be in Rochester this weekend, including his younger brother Danny, Malik Geiger, Thai Billon, Tony Wells and Matt Leonard.

His interest in the martial arts stems back to watching Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies, but he doesn’t compete with a blood lust. In fact, he said he feels horrible when he knocks someone out (he has two KOs in his career).

To Governale, it’s still about going beyond the boundaries.

“When you get in the ring, it’s basically testing the waters and seeing how far you’ve progressed (with) your spirit, mentally, physically,” he said.

“I think a lot of it is just fighting spirit. When I compete it’s not about hurting other people. It’s not about beating other people down. It’s really fighting against myself.”