About Kickboxing

Kickboxing

Kickboxing is a sport which combines karate based kicks and boxing style punches to defeat the opponent in a similar style of fighting format to that of a boxing match.

Kickboxing is frequently used as another name for Muay Thai but while at first glance they may be similar they are two separate and very different sports. In kickboxing, unlike Muay Thai, kicks below the belt aren’t allowed and neither are knees, elbows or clinching.

To add to this confusion there are many similar sports in different countries that are labeled as kickboxing. The main specific ‘styles’ that are associated with this term are the Japanese and the American versions.

Japanese kickboxing
The Japanese variant was the first to be created by a man named Osamu Noguchi (a boxing promoter in the 1950s). This was started thanks to a man named Tatsuo Yamada, a karate instructor who wanted to promote full contact competitions. In his efforts he brought over a Muay Thai fighter to study the art and Noguchi took great interest in the fighter and the style of Muay Thai. After sending three Kyokushin karate fighters from Oyama dojo to fight at the Lumpinee boxing stadium in Thailand Noguchi and a Kyokushin Karate instructor named Kenjo Kurosaki (who fought at Lumpinee stadium) combined boxing and what they had learnt of Muay Thai naming it kickboxing.

Noguchi founded the first kickboxing sanctioning body in 1966 and held the first event in Osaka on April 11. Its popularity soared especially because of Tadashi Sawamura who became a very popular kickboxer in Japan. The sport died soon after his retirement though and wasn’t in the limelight again until Kazuyoshi Ishii (founder of Seidokan Karate) formed special rules under newly formed K1 in 1993 which excluded elbows and clinching.

Now K1 is an incredibly popular promotion spanning all over the world and considered by many the pinnacle of full contact striking competition.

American Kickboxing
The American Variants creation is credited mainly to Joe Lewis who fought Greg Baines in the first American kickboxing event in 1970. It was created by combining the kicks of Karate with the punches and tactics of boxing. As in Japan around this time karate exponents weren’t allowed to hit each other and the sport of kickboxing was created in an effort to create a way for karate practitioners to fight full contact in the US.

Kickboxing in America had its ups and downs but slowly grew in popularity. The first world sanctioning body PKA (professional karate association) was started in 1974 with others to follow suit in Europe, London and other parts of the US. These included WAKO (World All Styles Karate Organisation), WKA (World Karate Association), ISKA (International Sport Karate Association), KICK (Karate International Council of Kickboxing), PKC (Professional Karate Commission), WAKO - Pro (World Association of Kickboxing Organisation – professional) and WKF (World Kickboxing Federation). As these organisations grew so did opportunities to promote international and world title fights, kickboxing has now become an internationally recognised sport with the influences of karate and boxing now being melded into a unique sport.