Western Style Kickboxing In Thailand?

[Gerry290]

Hi

Just out of curiousity, did anyone ever notice or see Western Style Kickboxing being taught in Thailand?

By Western Style, I mean full contact kickboxing, no elbows no knees & kicks above the waist only. (no leg kick)

Or as it was fondly called in 1980s Full Contact Karate!

While I train in Muay Thai & like this very much.

I used to enjoy the training in Full Contact Kickboxing as kicks done different, & a little more opportunity for kicking a bit more flashy, than you could do in a sparring match with legs kicks allowed. Always found champion level Kickboxers of this style very good with hands, my mate was World Champion (amaeteur) for about 7 years in mid 1980s, & suffered over the years many a cracked nose & black eyes due to his right cross & left hooks during saturday morning sparring back in Dublin, Mugendo Kickboxing was our style. (Ouch!! but great fun all the same!)

I love to do a bit of training for fun in this style of kickboxing again. I never ever saw nor heard much on it over here?

[Tingnongnoi]

can't say ive ever seen it anywhere, would imagine you would get laughed at if you pulled on the old moonboots and silk pajama pants over here to be honest.

[MekongCombat]

There is western boxing at many of the universities geared towards Olympics and Southeast Asia Games. As far as old school kick boxing, the only thing remotely similar would be Savate as there is a Savate Pro who is training out of Bangkok Fight Club. I'm sure he could cover that material but I have never heard of any American Kick Boxing here. The only reason I mention Savate is because many Savate Boxers were back in the 80s also involved with other Kick Boxing Orgs. in Europe and America.

Maybe an alternative would be TKD as they are well established and offer much kicking in tournaments?

[steveromagnino]

Never hard seen or heard of it; only time close was a few people i've met over the years proclaiming mad skills but no doubt not long after discovering that Muay Thai is a fair bit more effective.

There is TKD and Kung <deleted> and a ton of other styles around, but this American kickboxing thing doesn't really exist (I don't think) too many places these days; certainly not around NZ either.

[Gerry290]

The old moon boots & silk PJs. lol! Those were the days!

Ah lads, where is the memories of this once popular style Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, Joe Lewis, Jean Yves Theriault undefeated full contact champion for 15 years (open to correction on no. of years).

Savate, yes saw that chap up in BKK Fight Club, its a tough system, & think they kick in a way, v punishing. (seems like use shoed toe to dig in the kicks.)

TKD if trained hard for the sports competions, with hard contact sparring (did a few years of it v early 90s). People unfairly discount <deleted> TKD, it in certain schools depending on the type of people training, can be pretty tough, & a good player lands a kicks it no joke I tell u.

However just for me TKD & Kickboxing (more or less leave knees & elbows out of muay thai, is what I refer too), would not be similar at all to me.

I was curious re this kickboxing (I did it on & off if I could the past few years muay thai training in with it, 25 years now), if it existed at all out here. Interestly in 80s in USA & Canada it was massive on the TVsports networks PKA Professional Krarate Association with money behind it, & died off in late 80s i think?? (I would not compare it IMO at all to traditional MA competitons, most fighters I trained with were v good western boxers, & we in mugendo in Ireland, 70% was boxing with hands, heavy contact (within reason) in sparring sessions.)

Out of Trivia, many Muay Thai fighter under like of Master Toddy when Manchester based, fought this style rules (no elbow or knee) as there was not many muay thai fights promotions back then, so only way to get ring experience up was to fight under full contact kickboxing rules. Since USA there was Pro money it in, I wonder why back then Muay Thai fighters did not compete in the PKA for the dollars? (I am sure many wouldhave did very well).

Anyone throw any light on this?

[a09]

The old moon boots & silk PJs. lol! Those were the days!

Ah lads, where is the memories of this once popular style Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, Joe Lewis, Jean Yves Theriault undefeated full contact champion for 15 years (open to correction on no. of years).

Savate, yes saw that chap up in BKK Fight Club, its a tough system, & think they kick in a way, v punishing. (seems like use shoed toe to dig in the kicks.)

TKD if trained hard for the sports competions, with hard contact sparring (did a few years of it v early 90s). People unfairly discount <deleted> TKD, it in certain schools depending on the type of people training, can be pretty tough, & a good player lands a kicks it no joke I tell u.

However just for me TKD & Kickboxing (more or less leave knees & elbows out of muay thai, is what I refer too), would not be similar at all to me.

I was curious re this kickboxing (I did it on & off if I could the past few years muay thai training in with it, 25 years now), if it existed at all out here. Interestly in 80s in USA & Canada it was massive on the TVsports networks PKA Professional Krarate Association with money behind it, & died off in late 80s i think?? (I would not compare it IMO at all to traditional MA competitons, most fighters I trained with were v good western boxers, & we in mugendo in Ireland, 70% was boxing with hands, heavy contact (within reason) in sparring sessions.)

Out of Trivia, many Muay Thai fighter under like of Master Toddy when Manchester based, fought this style rules (no elbow or knee) as there was not many muay thai fights promotions back then, so only way to get ring experience up was to fight under full contact kickboxing rules. Since USA there was Pro money it in, I wonder why back then Muay Thai fighters did not compete in the PKA for the dollars? (I am sure many wouldhave did very well).

Anyone throw any light on this?

I used to teach traditional kickboxing at my old club in BKK, SMAC Boxing Club, alongside muaythai and karate. I used train and compete in Sweden many years ago and also graded up to black belt in kickboxing. But now I don't think there are any clubs offering kickboxing in Thailand. I am based in BKK and if you want to we can always meet up at the fitness gym I go to and do some kickboxing exercises and sparring.

[a09]

I used to teach traditional kickboxing at my old club in BKK, SMAC Boxing Club, alongside muaythai and karate. I used train and compete in Sweden many years ago and also graded up to black belt in kickboxing. But now I don't think there are any clubs offering kickboxing in Thailand. I am based in BKK and if you want to we can always meet up at the fitness gym I go to and do some kickboxing exercises and sparring.

[steveromagnino]

Ah lads, where is the memories of this once popular style Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, Joe Lewis, Jean Yves Theriault undefeated full contact champion for 15 years (open to correction on no. of years).

Out of Trivia, many Muay Thai fighter under like of Master Toddy when Manchester based, fought this style rules (no elbow or knee) as there was not many muay thai fights promotions back then, so only way to get ring experience up was to fight under full contact kickboxing rules. Since USA there was Pro money it in, I wonder why back then Muay Thai fighters did not compete in the PKA for the dollars? (I am sure many wouldhave did very well).

Anyone throw any light on this?

Probably not connected or knowing enough about it to know they coudl do it.

There were a few fights between kickboxers. One of the trainers in NZ, former Lumpini champ, (Fanta) fought Don the Dragon Wilson, and absolutely tore him apart; even had time to clown around and joke about; it was a slaughter; it was on video and Don ended up apologising and spent some time after that learning Muay Thai.

Benny the Jet also fought at some point, but would not allow a bunch of Muay Thai moves; I know he got beat at least once.

If they had allowed Muay Thai fighters in, I suspect it would have been like the Kung <deleted> vs. Muay Thai bouts in the 70s.

So the USA PKA survived well enough until people learned about Muay Thai, and then pretty much gave up the style and moved to either K1 type rules (which sort of encompasses both) or something else. The Americans don't tend to embrace other sports too much; they have their own football (rest of the world is soccer/rugby), own baseball, NASCAR, etc- wasn't aware that the kickboxing thing was that big in europe though?

Maybe time to bring back all those kickboxer type films set in the San Fernando valley... Me and Cobra Kai gonna bust you up!

Kind of like watching Muay Thai fighters from the 60s or boxers from the 40s and 50s. The technique has evolved a lot; much more mixing and matching these days.