About Kickboxing

The true roots of Kickboxing can be found to date back 2000 years ago in Far East Asia, where Muay Thai Kickboxing was commonly practised as a self- defence discipline. However it gradually became more of a sport over the years. Thaiboxing soon became the most common and popular fighting sport in Asia. Muay Thai - Kickboxing was controlled by the Thailand government, under the name of WMTC ( World Muay Thai Council). The main proponent that gave way to the rise of Kickboxing was Bruce Lee, making the link with the United States, making way for the future of International Kickboxing. By the late 20th century the sport Kickboxing was starting to take its own original form.

The strong urge for a Full contact sport, overtaking the rigid rules and boundaries of Karate, led to an all-new evolved version of full-contact kickboxing. The initial International Championship for this sport was held in Los Angeles in 1974. This move was highly regarded by many leading Karate masters at the time, many encouraged and made eager attempts at the newly recognised sport. Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace, Jeff Smith & Isuena Duenas were the fist actual champions in this sport.

For most of this period the most formal and accepted international sanctioning group was the PKA founded in America. Its founders made the first link with the media as they organised televised reports of championships being held around the globe. The group also formed the first fighter’s rating systems. Among the stars of this new system were Jean-Yves Theriault, Jerry Trimble and Brad Hefton.

In 1975, Georges Bruckner created the first European Amateur Organization. He named it WAKO (World All Style Karate Organisation). It was soon seen as a strong rival to the original PKA group based in the US. However, in recent years, after the Italian Ennio Falsoni took control from WAKO’s German founder, the group has become the most highly recognised amateur federation in Kickboxing.

In 1976, Howard Hanson, a Shorin Ryu Karate black belt and student of Mike Stone, created his own group WKA (World Kickboxing Association). At first the group had many successes and achievements, it even developed its regulations on low kicks in the sport. It gave way to champions like Fred Royers, Ronnie Green & Rob Kaman. Later in 1991 when WKA was sold to Canadian Dale Floyd, the group saw a gradual disintegration in its activity of events. At the time when Paul Ingram took control of the association and established it’s new headquarters in the United Kingdom, some important members began to leave, although it was seen as the second most important professional sanctioning association for Kickboxing internationally.

On July 16th 1986, ISKA was formed as a result of the many legal problems PKA was facing. The International Sports Kickboxing Association was founded by 5 promoters and PKA executives who had united to form this new association. the promoters were; Tony Thompson, John Worley, Karyn Turner, Mike Sawyer & Scott Coker. The associations glowing success attracted many of the remaining PKA members, who soon joined ISKA’s growing success. A major boost to the association’s success was the broadcasting of many of its championships on EPSN television network. In more recent years the association has been headed by Olivier Muller, who didn’t stay in power for long. ISKA was soon returned to the American promoters – headed by Mike Sawyer.