HISTORY
Kickboxing Facts & Figures
Kickboxing was started in the 70’s by the World Kickboxing Association and has fast become the world’s most exciting sport, which instils confidence, self-esteem, fitness awareness and agility. The WKA now have no fewer than 129 international offices and their administration office is based in Erdington, Birmingham, England.
- Kickboxing and soccer are the two sports, which are truly worldwide in popularity and acceptance. An estimated 300,000,000 citizens of the world practise at least one form of marital arts.
- The British are becoming health conscious and fitness orientated and are fascinated with martial arts.
- An estimated 2-3 million British people are currently training in martial arts. Martial arts particularly appeal to males aged 18-35 and to women as a means of self-protection. There is also a high proportion of children practising martial arts. Over the past ten years it is estimated that more than 6,000,000 people have trained in one form of martial arts.
- Martial arts stress fitness discipline and conditioning and instil self-confidence.
- There are over 20,000 clubs and gyms throughout Britain providing instruction in martial arts.
- Martial arts are a favourite conditioning activity of Hollywood stars including: Sylvestor Stallone, Patrick Swayze, Jean Claude Van Damme, Michelle Pfieffer, Chuck Norris and Cynthia Rothrock.
- Large worldwide corporations are sponsoring martial arts demonstration teams and world championship tournaments.
- Sales of martial arts merchandise and protective equipment have doubled each year since 1983. The martial arts industry in Britain as a whole turns over £22,000,000 a year.
- The sale of martial arts magazines has doubled in the last ten years; there are currently eight titles available, which are published monthly in Britain with a total circulation in excess of 100,000 nationally. There are also several imported titles, which also have a large readership.
- For decades the mystique of martial arts and kickboxing has captivated millions of cinema patrons, who have paid billions of dollars to view the action-packed adventures of such top draw athletes and movie stars as: Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Segal, Patrick Swayze, Brandon Lee, Mel Gibson, Dolf Lundgren and more. Over the last ten years television and kickboxing have proven successful with sports fans and movie fans alike.
- There are over a hundred countries worldwide participating in the sport of kickboxing. World title fights have been promoted in prestigious venues such as: The Tokyo Dome and Yokohama Arena ~ Tokyo, The Olympic Stadium ~ Moscow, Caesar’s ~ Las Vegas, Sydney Convention Centre ~ Australia and have attracted live audiences in excess of 60,000.
- Kung-Fu (Wu-Su) is the national sport of China with in excess of 100,000,000 participating daily. Sanda (kickboxing) is also one of the fastest growing material arts in China. This discipline is supported by the WKA who have already arranged International competitions.
- With the American television sports network ESPN, kickboxing is the longest running sports show (over twelve years) and draws an average audience of over 2,000,000 spectators every week.
- The WKA is the largest and oldest of the kickboxing associations and has its name and logo currently protected in over 90 countries world-wide.
KICKBOXING INTRODUCTION
Many laymen are under the impression that modern day kickboxing originated in Thailand, Japan or elsewhere in the Far East, in fact, the real origins of the sport are revealed by the real name by which is was known, full contact karate. During the mid-seventies various American tournament karate practitioners became frustrated with the limitations of the then rather primitive competitive scoring system. They wanted to find a system within which they could apply kicks and punches to the knockout. Full contact karate was born. Early bouts were fought on open matted areas just as ordinary karate matches were. Later events were staged in regular size boxing rings. These early tournaments produced kickboxing’s first stars, Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace, Benny Urquidez and Jeff Smith. Later the Americans really wanted to test their mettle and sent teams of kickboxers to Japan under the banner of the WKA (World Kickboxing Association). From this point kickboxing developed in to a true international sport.
KICKBOXING HISTORY
During the early seventies the American martial arts world was shaken to its foundations by the demands made on it by a fresh young new generation of practitioners. Fighters started looking for a competitive format in which they could use their skills to the full effect, full power punches and kicks in bouts fought to the knockout. The development of specialised protective equipment speeded up the evolution of this new sport, which became known as kickboxing. Between 1970 and 1973 a handful of kickboxing promotions were staged across the USA. In the early days the rules were never clear, one of the first tournaments had no weight divisions and all the competitors fought off until one was left. A very young Benny Urquidez reached the final. Weighing in at 10 stones Urquidez faced the 14 stones Dana Goodson. Urquidez won the tournament by pinning Goodson to the floor for more than 10 seconds, which was part of the rules.
Full contact karate led the way with a defined set of rules, kicks were only scored if they landed above the waist, kicking below the waist was considered a foul. The karate practitioners soon realised they would have to develop orthodox boxing skills as full power punches were allowed to the head. This form of the sport still exists today and is known as full contact. The early promoters of kickboxing worked together, Joe Corley, Don and Judy Quinn and Howard Hanson who was a Shorin Ryu Karate black belt and a student of martial arts tournament legend, Mike Stone. It was Hanson who advanced the sport another stage by ensuring that bouts were fought in a boxing ring rather than on the kind of open matting used for karate tournaments. Hanson soon became renowned as an excellent matchmaker, he staged a stream of successful events with several of them spotlighting Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace one of the first super stars of kickboxing.
The popularity of full contact grew quickly in America. One of the first sanctioning bodies was formed by Joe Corley and Don and Judy Quinn. It was called the PKA (Professional Karate Association). By now the rules were well developed and included a kick count rule where competitors had to perform a minimum of eight kicks per round. There were weight divisions similar to orthodox boxing from flyweight to heavyweight and world title fights were sanctioned. The PKA struck a deal with the American television sports channel ESPN and world title fights were broadcast on a regular basis. Unfortunately full contact was becoming an all American sport like baseball or American football. Americans would fight Americans for world titles much to the annoyance of Howard Hanson.
Hanson felt that real world kickboxing champions had to earn their titles the hard way, just as professional orthodox boxing champions did by fighting equally matched fighters from around the world. He felt that the traditional origins of the sport in Thailand and Japan were being ignored. At that time the sport was being enveloped in politics, greed and an all American attitude.
On a cold October evening Howard Hanson held a small meeting at which he put forward his revolutionary idea about forming a truly global kickboxing organisation. Present at the meeting was Arnold Urquidez (older brother of world famous kickboxer, Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez). A name for the new organisation was agreed. At that time the initials stood for the World Karate Association as full contact karate was still at the forefront. Later the name was changed to World Kickboxing Association. They decided that the symbol of the WKA was to be a black belt tied around a world globe. The WKA was born. Then the hard work started, rules were written and re-written. The WKA was open to everyone. One of the first fighters to take up the challenge and who was later to become one of the WKA’s most famous champions was Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez. In 1977 he fought for the first time under WKA rules against Thai champion, Narong Noi.
Later the same year Japan and Hong Kong were prepared for the WKA invasion with the help of one of Japan’s most famous wrestlers of all time, Antonio Inoki. Antonio Inoki is perhaps best known in the West for his mixed rules match with Mohammad Ali. The first WKA bouts to take place in the orient and saw American teams take on Japanese kickboxers as an added attraction at professional wrestling matches. Soon the sport became so popular that it was able to attract large audiences on its own merits.
At that time most American fighters were still practising full contact karate where as their Japanese and Thai opponents had a larger arsenal, which included knee and elbow strikes and kicks to the legs. Benny Urquidez who also held a black belt in Judo would throw his Thai or Japanese opponent if they tried to clinch. The Eastern fighters were not happy about being thrown across the ring and a compromise was sought. Howard Hanson decided in order to win television exposure in the US a rules system should be employed that allowed for as much kicking and punching as possible and as little grappling and clinching as possible. Traditional Muay Thai which features extensive close range fighting in the ring has a huge television audience in its native country, but this audience has been brought up to understand the sport in a way that American fans could not. It was decided that knees and elbows would not be allowed, but low kicks to the legs would stay. This evened the playing field between East and West and the WKA system of fighting became the international standard. The main reason why Howard Hanson thought that this was absolutely necessary was that he felt the sport had to grow in to a true international sport and not just involve a handful of countries. The oriental fighters number among the strongest in the world, so no man could call himself a true world champion without having fought the best from the orient.
From 1977 to 1980 the WKA grew like no other association, the great names in those days were: Benny Urquidez, Kunimasa Nagae, Don Wilson, Blinky Rodrigues, Steve Shepherd, Kinimitsu Okao, Alvin Prouder and even Jean Yves Theriault who competed on earlier WKA promotions. These were fighters that could be seen regularly fighting for the WKA on US and Japanese television. Kickboxing was now developing in to a professional sport with twelve rounds world title fights and a ranking system. The WKA was ready for expansion.
The WKA’s exploits in the USA and Asia did not go unnoticed in Europe. Through martial arts magazines fight fans heard of Benny Urquidez and his battles with Japanese champions. Holland had long been a forerunner in terms of European Muay Thai and kickboxing, so it was natural that in 1983 Amsterdam was the location for the first European WKA event. The promotion featured a fantastic fight card with a world title fight between challenger from Holland, Rob Kaman who was at that time very young, and the world super middleweight champion from the USA, John Moncayo. Dutchman, Fred Royers fought his way in to the Top 10 Ratings against Hong Kong’s Billy Chau. Fellow Dutchman, Ivan Sprang fought against Japan’s Ishino. This was the beginning for the Dutch super stars of kickboxing who went on to give a real challenge to the Americans and the Japanese. The under-card of the event in Amsterdam featured a young British fighter named Ronnie Green who was destined for great things. Ronnie Green’s trainer and manager, Master Toddy a Thai instructor based in Manchester, England was the first person to actively promote WKA kickboxing in the United Kingdom. Ronnie went on to become the WKA world champion. His fellow Englishmen, Howard Brown, Arthur O’Loughlan and Kash Gill all followed suit. The WKA had planted a firm foothold in Europe and quickly expanded through Germany, France, Italy until every major European nation was involved in WKA kickboxing. Holland’s Fred Royers eventually challenged for a world title against Yasuo Tobata in Japan during 1985. After his retirement he set up the European office of the WKA with Frenchman, Jean Paul Maillet who was responsible for matchmaking and European ratings. Royer’s later became vice-president of the WKA and the WKA kickboxing was promoted on a professional level throughout Europe with many events being broadcast on television.
In the US Howard Hanson appointed energetic Canadian, Dale Floyd as his world director and with him at his side Australia was invaded and here the WKA was successful as in all other continents. The tough Australians became an asset to the WKA and the WKA world super heavyweight champion, Australian Stan ‘The Man’ Longinidis did much to promote the sport ‘down under’. Australian kickboxers are now considered among the best in the world.
With the opening of the Iron Curtain and the changing of political structures in Eastern Europe during the late 1980’s, the WKA opened a new market for the sport of kickboxing. In the former Soviet Union martial arts was practised in secret as the government of the day frowned upon it. It was practically illegal to train in martial arts because its origins were based in Asia and the Communist government did not want the influence or traditions of other countries taken up by the Russian people. That all changed when the doors of the former USSR were opened to the world. New republics were formed under the banner of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). Russian athletes have always been considered among the best in the world and by the early 90’s the WKA were sanctioning kickboxing events in the republics of: Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Fighters from the CIS soon proved to be formidable opponents.
In 1991 Howard Hanson retired and handed the presidency on to his world director, Dale Floyd from Canada. Howard Hanson’s retirement signalled the end of an era for the WKA and paradoxically a rebirth of old alliances that had been alienated due to the nature of politics. From the start, Dale Floyd viewed his position as president as an interim ambassadorship to strengthen the oldest and the largest Kickboxing organisation in the world. He made concerted efforts to bring back people into the Association who made it great from the start. Benny Urquidez’s retirement fight on the 4 December 1993 in Las Vegas was his testimony to this. The Urquidez fight billed as the ‘Legends Final Challenge’ at the La Mirage Casino hotel was followed by a historic WKA international meeting. Dale Floyd felt that he had served his purpose and relinquished the presidency. He was replaced by Paul Ingram from England who came from a similar background as the original president, Howard Hanson. They both had business interests in real estate and property development and they had both been successful promoters. Paul Ingram had promoted a series of televised world-class Kickboxing events in the United Kingdom. Dale Floyd felt that Paul Ingram had the business acumen and marketing skills to take the WKA into a new era.
Paul Ingram took over the reigns in January 1994 and set up the WKA international headquarters in Birmingham, England staffed by professional administrators, publicists and marketing consultants who had many years experience in the field of Kickboxing. It was Paul Ingram’s intention to develop the sport of Kickboxing worldwide and expand the WKA. From January 1994 to December 1995 the WKA doubled its membership to almost seventy countries sanctioning a minimum of two international events per week. The WKA broke new ground in South Africa, India, the Indian Ocean and the Middle East.
Paul Ingram plans to expand the WKA on all continents with the ultimate goal of acquiring Olympic recognition no small task but one that with his open minded, non-political attitude is possible.
The WKA is open to every body no matter what race, creed, colour, belief, sex or affiliation.
The WKA are the largest association and authority on kickboxing and associated disciplines worldwide their activities include kickboxing, full contact, light contact, semi contact, savate, thai boxing and forms (kata).
WKA title fights have received extensive television coverage in the countries where they are promoted. Many of the fights are held in prestigious venues: Caesar’s and The Mirage, Las Vegas, Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, Budokan and Yokohama Arenas, Tokyo, Olympic Stadium, Moscow, Sydney Convention Centre, Sydney, Bercy Stadium, Paris and have attracted audiences of up to 60,000 spectators. The WKA’s name and logo stand for quality and credibility and are recognised worldwide.
