Imagine a karate hall in Tokyo, in Japan, in 1959. The teacher is called Tatsuo Yamada. In November that year he announced a plan for something new: a full contact "karate-boxing". 1,9 In contests of that time, fighters stopped their punches before they landed. Yamada wanted a sport where they did not.
Fighters from Thailand
To build it, he studied , the fighting sport of Thailand. In December 1959 a Muay Thai event was held in Tokyo. 1,9 Muay Thai is called the art of eight limbs, because fighters use their fists, elbows, knees and feet. 8
In February 1963 three karate fighters from the school of Mas Oyama went to Bangkok and fought three Muay Thai fighters at Lumpinee Stadium. 1
A new word
The person who made it into a sport was a boxing promoter called Osamu Noguchi, who lived from 1934 to 2016. 9 He mixed karate and Muay Thai, and he gave the mix its name: kick boxing. 1,9 In 1966 he set up the first kickboxing association, and the first event was held in Osaka on 11 April 1966. 1 Kickboxing was soon on Japanese television, and it stayed popular there until about 1980. 1
So the word was born in Japan. 1
What kickboxing is
Today the word means two things. Sometimes it means only the styles that call themselves kickboxing. Sometimes it means any sport where you can punch and kick. 1
One rule is the same everywhere. In kickboxing you may never use the . Elbows belong to Muay Thai. 8,41 The is allowed in only one kind of kickboxing, called K1 Style. 41
Noguchi's sport grew in Japan. At the same time, in America, a karate champion was getting tired of winning on points.