American kickboxing

American Kickboxing, also known as Full-Contact Kickboxing or American Full Contact Karate, is a combat sport and a style of kickboxing in which two opponents of similar weight fight each other using full contact strikes with their fists and feet to attack the opponent, while keeping similar rules of Western boxing. Full-contact kickboxing competitions are generally distinguished because of the dress of the fighters, mandatory wearing long pants and foot-pads (unlike other kickboxing styles where fighters wear shorts and fight bare-footed).
Although the term "full contact karate" has been used to refer this sport, it should not be confused with the generic term full contact Karate, which refers to any traditional karate school with the use of full contact sparring, like Kyokushinkai.
History
Count Dante, Ray Scarica and Maung Gyi held the United States' earliest cross-style, full-contact style martial arts tournaments as early as 1962. However, the American kickboxing sport was truly invented in 1970, as a result of combining boxing punches and tactics, with the kicks of Karate. The primary intention was to create a new sport where karate practitioners in the US could fight with full contact and with rounds like in boxing, since they weren't allowed to hit each other in traditional Karate tournaments. The first event of American kickboxing was held on January 17 of 1970, fighting Joe Lewis vs. Greg Baines.
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. During this early time, kickboxing and full contact karate were essentially the same sport. The institutional separation of American Full Contact Karate from kickboxing occurs with the formation of the in 1974 and of the in 1976. The impetus of the WKA on world martial arts as a whole was revolutionary. They were the first organised body of martial arts on a global scale to sanction fights, create ranking systems, and institute a development programme.
The was founded in 1992. It is the most active kickboxing sanctioning body in North America.
Competition rules
These are the rules used in American kickboxing:
*Opponents are allowed to hit each other with fists and feet, striking above the hip
*Front leg sweeps, to the inside & outside of opponents front foot are permitted.
*Using elbows or knees is forbidden and the use of the unpadded shins is seldom allowed.
*Bouts are usually 3 to 12 rounds (lasting 2 - 3 minutes each) for amateur and professional contests with a 1-minute rest in between rounds.
This is in contrast to Muay Thai where the use of elbows and knees are allowed. Fighters and promoters can agree to various rules including kicks only above the waist, kicks anywhere, no knee strikes, knees only to the body, and so on. The round durations and the number of rounds can vary depending on the stipulations agreed to beforehand by each fighter or manager. A winner is declared during the bout if there is a submission (fighter quits or fighter's corner throws in the towel), knockout (KO), or referee stoppage (Technical Knock Out, or TKO). If all of the rounds expire with no knockout then the fight is scored by a team of 3 judges. The judges determine a winner based on their scoring of each round. A split decision indicates a disagreement between the judges, while a unanimous decision indicates that all judges saw the fight the same way and all have declared the same winner.
pms:Kick-boxing merican-a

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