Nobody recorded the first kickboxing club in Britain. What the records do keep is a crowd: in 1980 a European championship came to the Wembley Centre in London. 5,10
The Americans first
In the 1970s the Professional Karate Association, the , was the most successful professional kickboxing body not only in the United States but in the UK and much of Europe. 5
Wembley, 1980 and 1983
In 1980 WAKO's European Championships were held at the Wembley Centre in London, and Great Britain finished second on the medal table. 10
Three years later the world came back. The WAKO World Championships of 22 October 1983 were also held at Wembley, organised by the head of the British PKA. 10
One weekend, two world championships
In 1985 WAKO split. Two rival world championships were held on the same weekend, one in London and one in Budapest. 10 The split was resolved the following year. 10 The record also keeps something that outlasted the quarrel: 1985 was the first time women competed at a WAKO championship, and they competed at both events. 10
A world body run from Britain
The other American body came to Britain too. The World Karate Association, the , founded in 1976, was run from the UK under Paul Ingram from 1994, and he set up its world headquarters here. 4,58 Its headquarters moved back to Birmingham in December 2016, and it has been run from New Zealand, as WKA International, since December 2018. 4,58
came as well. Its European rules give a licensing office in Wolverhampton, and ISKA's world headquarters lists a European President based in the UK. 54,55
WAKO GB becomes Kickboxing GB
WAKO's British member was for years called WAKO GB. In August 2023 it became , a not for profit body with a democratic structure, as its own news tells it. 81 WAKO's member list still showed Great Britain's member as "WAKO GB" in October 2026, and the UK sports councils list it as Kickboxing GB, formerly WAKO GB. 40,89
The sports councils recognise Kickboxing GB for England, Scotland and Wales, and , a body for the whole island of Ireland, for Northern Ireland. 89 ISKA, the WKA and the other bodies that sanction events in Britain are not recognised by the sports councils for kickboxing. 89
Recognition does not mean control. Most kickboxing clubs in EveryDojo's directory belong to no body at all; of those that do, more belong to Kickboxing GB than to any other. 141
The British sport, then, grew up on Wembley's floor, under American rules first and European ones later, with one recognised body and many clubs that answer to nobody. What it looks like inside a ring today was decided, once more, in Japan.