History of Kickboxing

Kickboxing is a hybrid of martial arts style kicks and Western boxing style punches to overcome an opponent. All punches and kicks must land above the belt although rules are not set in stone and different associations set individual rules.

Kickboxing is often confused with the art of Muay Thai or Thai boxing. Although the sports are very similar Muay Thai allows kicks below the belt with elbow and knee strikes. On the whole Muay Thai style fighting is widely practiced in kickboxing classes and often fighters will compete in both disciplines.

Kickboxing was introduced during the early seventies due to the concerns of martial artists within karate circuit tournaments. The problems were that with full contact karate there was no style or discipline. Full contact karate was a mess of a number of different styles where two fighters would enter the ring with protective gear and basically went for it.

One of the first tournaments saw Benny Urquidez, a ten stone fighter, reach the final against Dana Goodson who was fourteen stone. As you can tell these tournaments had no weight divisions and Benny Urquidez won by pinning Goodson to the floor for ten seconds which was then part of the rules. Following this there was anger and resentment for this sport by traditional martial artists, who called for a ban to naming this karate and renaming the sport kickboxing.

Improvements were not instant to the new sport of kickboxing and fights continued to be messy brawls, where excellent martial artists were reduced to wrecks by sheer exhaustion and inadequate techniques. Desperate for the sport to improve and even survive, kickboxers turned to another fighting system, Western boxing. Kickboxers watched with envy as boxers fought round after round with great technique, finesse, and stamina. It was clear to all that boxing was the way forward, and became the backbone of the fighting style.

Like all sports, kickboxing as a style is improving all the time with it’s practitioners excelling previous generations by promoting new, exciting methods, and dropping old and tired inefficient ones. Kickboxing is recognised as a top martial art today, and over thirty years on from its introduction, kickboxing is a formidable art in its own right.