In the United States of the 1960s, karate contests were won on points. A fighter scored by landing a controlled technique, the referee stopped the exchange, and the judges decided. Nobody was knocked out, because nobody was meant to be hit hard. 1,6
Joe Lewis was a champion at that kind of karate, and he wanted something else: contests that could be won by knockout. 1,9,40 WAKO and other accounts date his first "kickboxing" fight, against Greg Baines, to 1970; one gives the day as 17 January 1970. 1,9,40
Los Angeles, 1974
Four years later the new sport crowned its first world champions. The first world championships of were held in Los Angeles in 1974. 1,5,40,54
The PKA became the most successful professional kickboxing body of the 1970s, in the United States and in the UK and much of Europe. 5
The rules of American kickboxing
American full contact had one rule that shaped everything: punches and kicks were allowed above the waist only. 1 It was karate fought to a finish, with boxing gloves, long trousers and padded feet, and it still is: WAKO's full contact format today keeps the same targets. 41
It also had a rule to stop fighters turning into boxers. 5,41
That rule is the , and it is why full contact fighters still throw so many kicks.
The kick to the thigh
Not everyone agreed about the waist. In October 1976 Howard Hanson founded the World Karate Association, the ; the WKA's own history adds Arnold Urquidez as a founder. 4,58 Its professional rules allowed roundhouse kicks to the outer thigh, and its history gives the reason: Asian fighters would not fight without them. 1,58 Its first sanctioned event was held in Los Angeles on 12 March 1977. 4,58 Benny Urquidez, one of its fighters, fought in televised bouts in the United States and Japan. 4,58
That kick is the , and it later gave its name to a whole format. 1,41
After the PKA
The PKA declined. In its place came the International Sport Karate Association, today the International Sport Kickboxing Association, . 3,54
American kickboxing had its champions, its rules and its bodies. Across the Atlantic, Europeans were watching, and in Berlin one of them was about to call a meeting.