Useful Notes / Kickboxing

Sweeter than the sweet science.

Kickboxing is a combat sport, or rather an umbrella term for several competitive martial rulesets, based around punching and kicking. It could be intuitively described as "boxing, only with kicks (and possibly other strikes)".

Unlike other combat sports, kickboxing is hardly an unified discipline: it developed under several forms in very disparage countries and time periods, often with little to no direct contact to each other, which resulted in a myriad of circuits that only gain the appellative of kickboxing by sharing a vaguely similar punch-and-kick ruleset. To blur the lines even more, many traditional martial arts contain elements that would fit this definition as well, like Karate, Muay Thai, Taekwondo and some more, with several of them having contributed actively to their nearest kickboxing style. In synthesis, it is more correct to talk about kickboxing forms, just as "wrestling" can convey a variety of fighting systems instead of an overarching sport.

The term "kickboxing" was a Gratuitous English term created in The '60s by Osamu Noguchi, a Japanese promoter that codified most of the aspects we associate with modern kickboxing. The discipline he would go to promote was shaped by Tatsuo Yamada, a karateka who became fascinated with the full contact nature and liberal rules of muay thai. With their influence and that of several publicized challenge matches between karatekas and nak muay, Japan saw the creation of a Kickboxing Association and the rise of a new, exciting professional sport, whose popularity exploded right then and didn’t burn off completely until The '80s. Even then, the seed remained deeply planted, and when Akira Maeda and his collaborators broke off from Professional Wrestling to entertain the idea of real fighting, the return of kickboxing was one of its consequences. With the help of Maeda, a modernized organization named K-1 blossomed, attracting fighters from around the world and exploding in its own boom of fighting culture, dream matches and bone-breaking kicks.

At the same time, United States witnessed a similar evolution. Although some minor martial artists had attempted to create something similar, it was again a disenchanted karateka from The '70s, Joe Lewis, who had the idea (inspired by his training under Bruce Lee) to combine elements of karate and boxing. His creation was initially conceived as a form of full-contact karate, with the term kickboxing being an exotic term that ended up sticking; it was not until the founding of the Professional Karate Association (PKA) and the World Kickboxing Association (WKA) that their road became bifurcated and took separate directions. Other acronyms like IKF and ISKA appeared around this time, shaping it as a relatively popular competition circuit. It is interesting to note that, despite its revolutionary beginning, American kickboxing would differentiate itself from foreign forms by its conservative ruleset, which forbade kicks around the waist and barely allowed striking tools other than fists and feet. This would be a further point of evolution when one of its main stars, Benny "The Jet" Urquídez, made contact with muay thai fighters.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world was taking its own notes. Dutch martial artists influenced by Jon Bluming discovered in mid-80s the remnants of the Japanese circuit and its Thai neghbours, and after deciding it was the coolest thing around, they put their efforts in learn whatever they could and recreate with their own arts what they could not. A long tradition of kickboxers started there, marked by but not limited to a legendary rivalry between Thom Harinck's Chakuriki team and Jan Plas's Mejiro Gym. With the rise of K-1 and the the Japanese branch of Mixed Martial Arts, those Dutch badasses decided to give back more than they had taken and joined them in the journey.

Styles

Nowadays, the main styles or forms of kickboxing are the following ones. Note again that, as mentioned before, traditional martial arts like muay thai and karate can be considered kickboxing modalities as well.

American kickboxing

• Full Contact, Knock Out Fighting or American Kickboxing: born in the United States, this style is, as mentioned before, conservative in its rules and based on karate competitions and was even preferred to as Professional Karate or (American) Full Contact Karate (or just Contact Karate for short) in its early days. Its fighters wear long trousers with shin pads and boxing gloves, as well as protective helmets if they are amateur or under 16. On the ring, they can use only punches and kicks (usually with the foot, although the shin is sometimes legal too), and kicking about and below the waist is forbidden altogether. Clinch-fighting is similarly forbidden, but sweeps can be allowed depending on the ruleset. There was also a "mandatory kick count requirement", 6 for amateurs and 8 for pros until it was removed in July 2009 (though fights in the UK continue to use it), though referees may choose to give a "warning" or even a "point deduction" for a fighter who does not appear to be kicking enough.
  • Semi-Contact or Points Fighting: a variation with a slightly more closed ruleset, usually practice by younger kickboxers or beginners, it is more similar to Karate or Taekwondo (returning to kickboxing's parentage). Instead of knocking your opponent, you have to gain points in order to win by hitting your opponent. After getting a point, the match is reset and restarted.
  • Light Contact, Light Continuous or Continuous Fighting: a ruleset created as an intermediate stage between semi and full contact. Competitors fight continuously until the referee says so, with points tallied up as they happen and the winner is declared at the end of the rounds. They use techniques from full contact, but these techniques must be well controlled when they land as they cannot be used knockout. Also has International/Low Kick/Freestyle and K-1 versions. For some reason, in France it is referred to as "Medium Contact".
  • High Kick Only: a now-extinct form of American kickboxing, and was once the predominate style until the rise of the WKA. This form had the same target area as normal boxing, that is, no kicks at or below the waist, no clinching, and no sweeps of any kind. The PKA were the main proponents of this style, which some cynically argued was to protect their middleweight champion, Bill "Superfoot" Wallace, and it more or less died with them.
  • Kick Fighting: another extinct form of American kickboxing, despite the name it was kickboxing... with extra steps. Developed by Gary Alexander in the mid 1970s, its rules had fighters wear regular boxing gloves, feet were padded as well and besides punching and kicking (all above the waist of course), were able to use grabs and throws and were even allowed to attack downed opponents to a certain degree. Bouts consisted of 3 rounds of 2 minutes. It never caught on or got much publicity because of its claim that "It's Kickboxing plus... which means it should turn out to be the roughest, wildest sport around." With claims like that, it turned out to be the kiss of death for the sport as it was seen as too extreme at the time.
  • International, Low-Kick or Freestyle Kickboxing: popular in European countries outside Netherlands, it is essentially a customized version of American kickboxing. It was created by the WKA, which formed after a split from the PKA. Its creation was deemed necessary when WKA founder Howard Hanson realized that while the Americans dominated their style of kickboxing, they would never be able to seriously challenge the other styles (especially the Japanese and Thai styles) without a change in their rules to better prepare for them. Its ruleset is similar to Full Contact, except that it allows kicking to the legs and disallows sweeps.
  • World Combat League: a defunct promotion that featured team-based full contact kickboxing founded by Chuck Norris. It was fought on a no-rope circle ring (sometimes referred by fans as "the pit"), each match is two rounds in duration, with each round lasting three minutes, with a halftime of five minutes after the first set of rounds, with a five person team this gives each fighter about 20 minutes between rounds so he or she can fight full speed for the entire time allowed. Competitors fight in approved team pants, with gloves and shinguards, though they also originally wore full contact shoes until the 2006-2007 season. Its ruleset is basically Full Contact, but allows limited clinching to throw one knee strike (above the waist of course) but then must release immediately.
• Xtreme Arm Wrestling or XARM: an absurd combat sport created in 2008 by UFC co-founder Art Davie that combines kickboxing and grappling with arm wrestling of all things. Davie's reasoning for its creation was that he believed MMA had lost its way and appeal with the extensive amount of ground fighting and claimed his new sport was more intense than MMA. Bouts take place on an arm wrestling table with fighters chained to the table (which keeps the bouts standing) and their grip hands are locked together (with a strap and/or duct tape), they wear MMA gloves, elbow and knee pads and usually wear rash guards and shorts, with shoes being optional. Bouts consist of three one minute rounds with a one minute rest period between rounds, which arm is contested in the first round is determined by the referee’s toss of a coin before the round with the second round being contested with the opposite arm and the third round utilizes the coin toss again to determine the grip hand (“Heads” designates a right-arm bout and “Tails” designates a left-arm bout). Bouts are won by a clean knockout, a TKO, submission, or a decision based on points. Fighters are allowed to strike with the shoulder, either their free fist or the knuckles of the grip hand, the hand, forearm, foot, shin or knee to an opponent’s head or any part of the body, all visible above the table and arm wrestling pins as well as “table generalship” (how a fighter controls the bout) also score points. Neck cranks, fist chokes, armbars, and collar ties are permitted; but defensive grappling to stall will incur a warning from the referee and only permitted if it advances an offensive technique and/or a strike. An athlete may strike his opponent’s grip hand elbow or arm to avoid a pin with any part of his open hand, but not with his fist, elbow or forearm. Also unlike most combat sports, a certain amount of “Trash Talk” is permitted with the exception of references to relatives, relationships, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or religion. It was also geared for the Internet as it was believed that the small circumference of the fighting area and the short length of episodes would be guaranteed to look good on mobile phone screen with claims that it is “the first sport really created for digital media”, and also featured other things like the being gloves wired with special sensors that were supposed to tell you how hard those left hooks are landing, a running count of how many punches are being thrown and when they land, the table wired with sensors that record every arm wrestling pin and even the referee has a camera and a microphone mounted right in his eyeglasses so you see action from his perspective too. The end result was a complicated (yet entertaining none the less) mess, and the sport was ridiculed by the MMA fandom due to its absurdity, presentation and poor quality of fighters with its first run between 2008-2009 and its second run between 2011-2012 before seemingly calling it quits. Then it reappeared in 2022 in Russia of all places dubbed Arm Boxing and had a variation that abandoned the arm wrestling aspect as it just chained the fighters to the table, and they even tried to make it into an amateur sport with several federations set up (one that uses English can be found in India of all places), but it seems they abandoned it once again due to the absurdity of the concept and the federations now promote amateur kickboxing and boxing competitions while keeping the Arm Boxing name.

Japanese kickboxing

• Oriental, K-1 or Japanese Kickboxing: created by the Japanese and adored by the Dutch, it is the originator of the kickboxing name. Fighters here wear mainly boxing shorts, although trousers and even full karategi used to be legal, often causing a surprising visual diversity. This style is substantially open: fighters can hit with punches, kicks, knees to any part except by the groin, and a limited amount of clinching is allowed. Back in the 90s, its main promotion K-1 was essentially the Mecca of kickboxing, so this modality is probably what most non-American fans see when they think about the sport. This ruleset has also been adopted by top non-Japanese kickboxing promotions such as GLORY, ONE Championship and Bellator Kickboxing, and is also referred as Unified Rules. Interestingly, several organizations actually separates K-1 into its own ruleset by giving the advantage to the more aggressive fighter if the scores are equal and only scoring strikes with power behind them.
  • Original Kick Boxing Rules: the original rules of Japanese kickboxing were quite different from its modern form. Formed in 1966, to distinguish it as a separate sport from Karate and Muay Thai, it allowed all types of throws and sweeps (Muay Thai does not allow hip throws and sweeps with the back of the ankle), elbows were allowed and even headbutts of all things were legal. Changes were eventually made for the safety of the fighters.
  • Dutch Rules or Dutch Kickboxing: an old ruleset that came about when Japanese kickboxing and Muay Thai were first introduced in Holland in the 70s, was also known as European Muay Thai Rules for a time. It was developed by the Netherland Kick Boxing Bond in the 1970s when the late Jan Plas brought the sport from Japan to his native country. Dutch rules prohibited elbow strikes and limited knee strikes (only to the body) since Dutch kickboxers placed a huge emphasis on footwork, leg kicks and punching combinations as they drew heavily from Kyokushin karate and Western boxing. However, elbows were allowed if both parties agree to it. These changes were aimed at reducing injuries and making bouts more accessible to Dutch TV viewers, compared to Muay Thai. It pretty much has been replaced by Oriental Rules, though it was instrumental in the latter's modern development.
  • Full Contact Karate or Knockdown Karate: as stated before, karate could be considered a "kickboxing" style in the wider sense, but none is more true then Full contact karate. The term can be used to any style of karate where the Kumite is not for points, but for a knockdown. The most traditional style is Kyokushin, created by Blood Knight Mas Oyama, fighters are bareknuckle, can punch anywhere except the face (and groin, obviously) and kick anywhere (including the face!). Kyokushin influenced the creation of Kickboxing and in a roundabout way, many karatekas were influenced by kickboxing and developed their own full-contact styles with different rules and techniques, with styles that use boxing gloves getting called Glove Karate (or Shin Karate), styles using point sparring that allows knockout strikes instead of disqualifying the one using them in what is called Full Contact Point Karate (known in Japan as POINT&KO Rules Karate), and other styles evolved into a more MMA-oriented sport, most famously Kudo (or Daido Juku) and its offshoot Zendokai.
    • Bōgutsuki Karate: translated as Karate With Armour is a direct predecessor of Full Contact Karate. Also known as Bōgu Karate (Armour Karate), Bōgutsuki Shiai (Fight With Armour), or Bōgutsuki Kumite (Kumite with Armour), it dates back to the 1920s when Japan was looking into turning kumite into a sport after Gichin Funakoshi came to Tokyo and began teaching karate. In 1927, The Karate Study Group of Tokyo Imperial University devised its own armoured karate system, but for reasons unknown Funakoshi grew furious with its development and eventually resigned as the instructor of the University of Tokyo in 1945. In 1946, the Kanbukan dojo took up the format for themselves and is credited as being the birthplace of the format. As the dojo also taught Kendo, the karatekas used the kendōgu (protection equipment) whenever the kendokas weren’t using it and modified them over time to suit their needs and eventually held the first national championships in 1954. The format has helped change the landscape in martial arts and combat sports, like the creation of Full Contact Karate starting with Kyokushin after Mas Oyama decided to experience and experiment with full contact without protection, to influencing the development of other arts like Nippon Kempo and likely Taekwondo's (particularly the Kukkiwon's) practice of "hogu daeryon" (“sparring with protective armor”), to influencing the creation of MMA gloves, etc.
  • Shootboxing: a unique Japanese variation created by former kickboxer Caesar Takeshi, who had connections to the Japanese wrestling environment that gave birth to Mixed Martial Arts. The most open of all the kickboxing forms, which led to it being called Standing Vale Tudo, shootboxing allows punches, kicks, knees, elbows, clinching, throws, sweeps and even submission holds (as long as they are finished standing), and their fighters are clad in pro wrestling-esque long tights. This used to be a very niche sport compared to the other forms, but it has become bigger through the years, and nowadays it has a significant pool of talent.
  • Shin Kakuto Jutsu: an extinct form of Japanese kickboxing developed by Kenji Kurosaki in the late 1970s. It was basically Muay Thai with a 2 minute time limit instead of the regular 3 minutes as Kurosaki believed it was closer to the reality of fighting in the streets. Kurosaki eventually revised it into a full contact karate variant which is what it is continues to be today.
  • Seikendo: another extinct form of Japanese kickboxing created by Satoru Sayama, a Japanese pro wrestling legend and founder of the first MMA promotion in the world; Shooto. It was conceived as an "urban martial art" which focused on realistic "street fight" style fighting based on his MMA expertise with ceremonials based on traditional Japanese imagery and ideals, before he eventually made a combat sport out of it. Promoted as Ultimate Boxing, it allows punches, kicks, knees, elbows, clinching, throws, sweeps, takedowns, and even ground fighting with no time limit (limited to pinning and ground and pound), though it banned submissions so it couldn't be considered a MMA promotion. It only lasted 3 years from 1999 to 2002 with most of their fighters coming from Russia and former Soviet Union countries, though it still exists as a martial art in Japan with students being invite-only.

Indian kickboxing

• Musti-Yuddha: an umbrella term for any boxing art from India, though it mostly refers to a particular ancient sport that may have influenced other forms of martial arts found in other parts of the Indian cultural sphere, most famously the boxing styles of Southeast Asia. Aspiring fighters were said to undergo years of apprenticeship, toughening their fists against stone and other hard surfaces, until they are able to break coconuts and rocks with their bare hands. Any part of the body may be targeted (except the groin of course), but the prime targets are the head and chest. Techniques incorporate punches, kicks, elbows, knees and grabs (headbutts also were said to be included in ancient texts). Boxers wear no form of protection and fight bare-fisted. Uniquely matches may be one-on-one, one against a group, or group against group. The introduction of western boxing in the 1890s caused a decline, until only a variation called Muki Boxing survived in Varanasi as part of religious celebrations. Illegal matches are still held in Kolkata and are frequented by gamblers.
• Adithada or Adithadi: an umbrella term that refers to the preliminary empty hand techniques of the Tamil people in southern India and northern Sri Lanka, found in martial arts like southern-style Kalaripayttu and Adimurai. It incorporates both stand-up grappling and striking, as well as a detailed study of pressure points called Varma Adi or Varma Kalai. Practitioners are trained in using bare knuckles, feet, knees, elbows, and forehead strikes usually as preparation for weapons training. A variation called Kuttu Varisai also exists as the unarmed techniques of the Tamil martial art of Silambam.

Southeast Asian or Indochinese kickboxing

• Muay: the current ethnic neutral term for the boxing styles in Southeast Asia, due to the many similarities of their styles. Other names previously suggested were Sovannaphum Boxing or SEA Boxing.
  • Muay Thai or Thai Boxing: a Thai style known poetically as "The Art of The Eight Limbs", in other words, you can punch, kick, use elbows and knees to pretty much any part of the body (before you ask, even in the groin, well, at least before the 1980s), it has extensive clinch work and allows many sweeps, making it one of the most "complete" kickboxing styles. It has a long story dating back to the 15th and 16th century, but it wasn't until the king Rama VII codified the modern rules in the early 20th century after some influence from British Boxers turned into the modern sport. It is Thailand's national sport and is deeply steeped into its cultural background which can be seen on the pre-match ritual dance and in the use of traditional headbands and prajied leg/arm bands. Muay Thai was initially secluded to its native Thailand, but it started to reach international audiences by various challenges, including the famous one against Karate Kyokushin in the 1960s which gave birth to Japanese kickboxing, and in the 1980s when American Kickboxing world champion Rick Roufus was defeated by Thai champion Changpuek Kiatsongrit in an exhibition superfight, Kiatsongrit wasn't allowed to use knees, elbows or sweeps but was allowed to use leg kicks (see International/Freestyle kickboxing ruleset above). However, it exploded in popularity with the rise of Mixed Martial Arts in the late 90s and early 2000s, especially by Brazilian fighters coming from Vale Tudo, as you can use pretty much every weapon from Muay Thai's arsenal in MMA, reaching the point that Thai boxing is pretty much the standard striking basis for MMA.
    • Muay Kard Chuek: Translated as Rope-Bound Boxing it is basically old school Muay Thai, but with hemp rope bindings around the hands instead of gloves. A throwback to the ancient style of Muay Boran, it originally fell out of style in favour of the modern rules for safety reasons as a sanctioned fight in 1928 between a Thai fighter and a Khmer boxer from the Cambodian city of Battambang ended in the third round when the Thai dropped his Khmer opponent with a flurry of punches and the Cambonian died on the way to the hospital. It is believed that the rope bindings allow fighters to deliver more force compared gloves due to the smaller area of impact and it is also believed there were fighters in the past who would dip their wrapped hands in resin and broken glass (though this myth was likely popularized by the final fight scene in Kickboxer). Today, Kard Chuek competitions have come back and are held on several Thai televised boxing events, most notably by the Thai Fight promotion and are also occasionally held on temple festivals celebrated in the countryside around Thailand. They are carried out as a way of honoring the traditions.. Modern Kard Chuek fights are less brutal as fighters put on thin padded gloves before wrapping their hands with ropes.
    • Caged Muay Thai: Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Created by Australian Muay Thai legend John Wayne Parr in 2012 with his own promotion of the same name, it is designed for people who like MMA, but complain when the fights go to the ground. Aside from using a MMA cage instead of a boxing ring, fighters also wear MMA gloves instead of regular boxing gloves and the scoring system is more in line with western standards than traditional Thai Boxing. Aside from Parr’s promotion, it is notably a featured ruleset used by the ONE Championship promotion, who refer to those bouts as the being under the Global Muay Thai Rule Set. There were other promotions in the past that had Muay Thai bouts with MMA gloves and/or in a MMA cage here and there, but they never brought it to acclaim like Parr and ONE did.
    • Modified Muay Thai: A ruleset invented by the International Kickboxing Federation. It prohibits knees and elbows to the head, has limited clinching, but allows knees to the body.
    • Tag Team Muay Thai: Yes you read that right, I am honestly not making this up. And its not even done in Japan like how they experiment with Tag Team MMA and Grappling matches (though it was arguably done there first when the shoot style promotion UWF-I did a Tag Team Kickboxing rules match with legit kickboxers), these fights are a niche limited to Australia and New Zealand for some reason.
  • Lethwei or Burmese Boxing: you think Muay Thai is crazy? Lethwei is from Myanmar and resembles the ruleset of Muay Thai a lot, allowing the use of punches, kicks, elbows, knees, sweeps and clinchwork but with two major changes: fights are bareknuckle and headbutts are allowed, because of that, it is known poetically as "The Art of Nine Limbs". This makes Lethwei be one of bloodiest and most violent combat sports/martial arts out there and that is without taking into account traditional rules, where the only way to win was by knock-out. Despite that, Lethwei has never been as popular as Muay Thai for a few reasons: it was never thoroughly codified until mid-20th century, not having a big championship and a solid ruleset until 1996, and Myanmar has always been poorer and more unstable than Thailand, which results in less investment, less spectators with less expendable income and as a result, a smaller talent pool because a sports career in such dangerous sports isn't attractive. This has been changing, as the sport has been growing by attracting foreign fighters, creating an international promotion (World Lethwei Championship) and spreading through the world.
    • Hanthawaddy Burmese Bando Boxing or Bando Kickboxing: a watered down, Americanized version of Lethwei introduced by Dr. Maung Gyi in the late 1950s. Also known as "Four Armed Burmese Boxing" or even "Six Armed Burmese Boxing", it allowed for punching, kicking above the waist, kicking to the legs, and knees from the standup position, which was already revolutionary by the start of American kickboxing. In the early-to-mid-1990s out of a fear of injury and potential litigation, Dr. Gyi and the American Bando Association further modified the rules by prohibiting the use of knees, making it almost no different from International/Low Kick/Freestyle kickboxing. Unlike Lethwei however, it required the use of gloves and neither allow headbutts, elbows, knees, throws, or techniques in the clinch. As such, these prohibitions moved it even farther away from its traditional Lethwei roots, removed the vast majority of techniques and tactics of traditional Lethwei, and it also de-emphasized most of the cultural traditions associated with the practice of Lethwei. By the mid-to-late 1990s, it was on the decline and quietly disappeared when the focus within the American Bando Association moved away from it and towards more historical and traditional practices of Myanmar Bando, as well as the trend in the US towards harder, more physically rugged combat sports such as Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA. However it seems that it still exists in some form in Europe, a revised form was introduced to England in the early 1960s by U Hla Win and Jonathan Collins, an American student of Dr. Maung Gyi introduced it to France, Switzerland and Spain in 1986.
  • Tomoi: from Malaysia, a direct descendent of Muay Thai brought over by Siamese immigrants that settled down in the Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu states before the Islamization movement in the 80s. There are however some claims that a few Silat practitioners "exchanged" techniques with Muay Boran practitioners during the 1st century of the Kedah Sultanate all the way to when it became a State of Siam to create a style appropriately called Silat Tomoi, with its name combining Silat with " Dhoi Muay or Dhee Muay", an alternate name for Muay Boran. It was outlawed in 1990; however by 2006 the ban was abolished and Tomoi was again allowed to be practiced under the new name of Moi Kelate or Muay Kelate which means Kelantan Boxing in the local dialect, though most Malaysians still call it Tomoi. Its main difference from its neighbouring counterparts is the lack of ritual dance and ceremonies before bouts, since Islam bans that sort of thing, though music is still played during bouts.
  • Pradal Serey or Kun Khmer: from Cambodia, the official Khmer name of the sport is Kbach Kun Pradal Khmer. In the great debate on the origin of the boxing styles of the region, Cambodians threw their hats in the ring by claiming it came from them during the Khmer Empire, which dominated and controlled most of what is now Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and parts of Vietnam from the 9th to the 15th centuries. Similar to Muay Thai, it codified its modern rules after influence from colonists during Cambodia's time as a protectorate within French Indochina. While also stylistically similar in its rules, it never got to be a popular as its Thai alternative due reasons similar to Lethwei, Cambodia's instability since the Cambonian Civil War, where it was banned and many boxers were executed or worked to death, and its status as a fourth world country renders a lack of funding. It has been making efforts to expand, with local weekly television matches, several schools and organizations set up in the USA, Europe, Vietnam and Australia, exposure to the western world from travel journalists and tourists, and their own fighters representing it on the international stage.
  • Muay Lao or Lao Boxing: from Laos, another stylistically similar alternative to its neighbouring counterparts. The origin of Muay Lao can be traced back to the 14th century in the form of military combat by the troops of Fa Ngum, the king who first unified the country and created the Lan Xang Empire. It unfortunately doesn't produce as many fighters as the others (except perhaps Tomoi) due to its significantly smaller population (even though the country itself is bigger than Cambodia, which is the smallest one on this list), and nearly all of its development happening in and around its capital, Vientiane. Now, due to financial difficulties, competitions have not been held since 2016 and most of the practitioners quit Muay Lao or went to Thailand.
  • Võ Tự Do or Vietnamese Boxing: from Vietnam, yet another stylistically similar alternative to its neighbouring counterparts, or at least it was until the last competitions in Vietnam took place in the early 1970s in Saigon. According to historical documents, traditional Võ Tự Do was created in 1312 through exchanges between the Người Mường and the Thais, though it was only recognized officially in 1922 and was an open competition that allowed many disciplines and schools of martial arts to show their strength, though in practice it looked a lot like the other boxing styles in the area with punches, kicks, elbows, knees and didn't allow groundfighting of course. Its traditional form almost disappeared thanks to the communists taking over Vietnam and banning it along with all other martial arts, though they eventually lifted it and is now refered to as Thi Đấu Võ Cổ Truyền Đối Kháng or Thi Đấu Đối Kháng Võ Cổ Truyền (both roughly meaning "Traditional Martial Arts Competition") since Võ Tự Do now refers to MMA by the Vietnamese today, though it does not have a pro circuit so far, so bouts are fought with head gear and chest protectors unlike the old days. The martial art of Việt Võ Đạo (or Võ Việt Nam) also has its own version of it (though most schools will never refer to it as such) that looks more like a style of full contact karate due to the arts' uniform, though it also scores throws and takedowns.
  • Bénjang or Gelut Galuh: from Indonesia by way of the Sundanese people from West Java. Several claims have been made that Muay Thai got its origins from there and got to Thailand through warriors of the Sunda Kingdom that existed between from the 7th to the 16th century, though the claims are dubious as the names in modern times are more associated with a style of folk wrestling instead of anything kickboxing-like, the claims excuse this by saying that the original style was banned during the Dutch colonial era and eventually got lost and died out.
• Tarung Derajat: a unique variation from Indonesia, created by Haji Achmad Dradjat through his experience as a street fighter during the 1960s in Bandung. In 1968, when he was 18 years old, his friends and other youngsters came to him and asked him to teach them. Then in 1972, he created a shelter for his students, called AA BOXER and became well known enough his martial art was refered to as BOXER. In his opinion, a martial art created in Indonesia must have a name in Bahasa Indonesia, so he changed "BOXER" to "Tarung Derajat". The word "tarung" means fight and the word "derajat" means pride, dignity, or prestige, so concisely, 'Tarung Derajat' means "Fighting For Pride". At first glance, it resembles taekwondo due to the similar uniforms they wear and although it emphasizes on striking, it also focuses on grappling and sweeping, things that taekwondo does not do in its modern form. Since the 1990s, Tarung Derajat has been refined for sport, where it is quite similar to Pro Taekwondo as listed below and is now officially recognized as a national sport and used as basic martial arts training for the Indonesian Armed Forces and Indonesian National Police.

Filipino kickboxing

• Suntukan: the general term for the empty handed techniques of Filipino martial arts. It also known by many other names depending on the region of the Philippines it is taught in like, Pangamot, Pakamot, Sumbagay, Bakbakan, Mano-Mano, De Cadena, Cadena de Mano, Arnis de Mano, etc, while in the west it known as Panantukan, Panununtukan (these two were supposedly used as to not be confused with Shotokan Karate), Filipino Boxing, or just Dirty Boxing. While it usually refers to upper body striking techniques like punches, elbows, headbutts, shoulder strikes, and limb destructions, most masters will teach them alongside kicks, knees, stomps and trips (which they will refer to as Sikaran, Paninipa, Pagsipa, Pananadiyak, Pagtadiyak, etc in the Phillipines, while it is known as Pananjkman/Panandiakman in the west) and grappling (which is usually refered to as Dumog or Buno, along with many other names depending on which region and/or ethic group of the Phillipines it is practiced in, though most masters discourage prolonged exchanges). Unlike most martial arts, empty handed techniques are for the higher grades after weapons training has been mastered, as advanced students are expected to be able to apply experience with weapons to unarmed fighting (though there are a few masters that start with (and even fewer that only teach) empty hands fighting). This is because almost all techniques are directly based on weapon usage and why they also feature things like elbow blocks, bolo punches and other chopping strikes, and an emphasis on evasive maneuvers and parrying stances, with practitioners typically circling constantly to avoid getting hit and look for openings, just like with knife fighting. While it is not meant for sport, several practitioners had sucess in boxing, kickboxing and MMA by adapting some of the techniques for the respective sports.
• Sayaw ng Kamatayan or Yaw-Yan for short: from the Philippines comes this unique variation. Translated to English as The Dance of Death, it was developed and publicly presented in 1972 by master Napoleon A. Fernandez who had a background in various martial arts such as traditional jujitsu, Jeet Kune Do, Karate, Eskrima, Aikido, and Judo, and claims to have modified and fused them to create a martial art that is a gift to his fellow Filipinos. It differs from the other arts on this list in the hip-torquing motion as well as the downward-cutting nature of its kicks, emphasizes on delivering attacks from long range instead of clinching, and uses empty-hand translations of the bladed weapons from traditional Filipino martial arts in their punches, elbows, forearm and palm strikes, with a focus on a variety of "bolo punches". It has also faced criticism due to its cult-like rituals, in particular the branding of the art’s symbol onto the chest of practitioners, though modern gyms have mostly moved away from that practice. It dominated the Filipino kickboxing scene in the 70s to 90s and has also been a constant presence in the Filipino MMA scene as it also includes training in grappling and even traditional Filipino weapon training. Most practitioners however stick to the kickboxing aspect of it, as it is the most well known part of the art, though its pool of talent has been growing steadily and now has a small presence internationally.
• Sikadtukan: a striking system that makes up the empty hand system of Garimot Arnis that was developed by Gat Puno (Chieftain) Abon Baet. It is named after a combination of the terms Suntukan and Sikaran. It should be noted however that his use of empty hand striking was more to set up attacks for and compliment his skills in Harimaw Buno, a particular folk wrestling style to the Manyans, of Mindoro, Island and Infanta, Quezon in Luzoan Philippines, of which he is a master of and even founded the World Harimaw Buno Federation.
• Bokaido: a kickboxing system with a rather unexpected origin. Created by master Ambrosio "Monching" J. Gavileño, one of the first Filipinos to hold a black belt in Aikido (Aikikai style) of all things, who decided to expand his style by studying other arts like karate, western boxing and suntukan to create a new combative art and even founded the Philippine Bokaido Kickboxing International in 1992. It is now a part of his Tapondo organization which includes it as well as his other styles of Combat Aikido and Modified Arnis.
• Sagasa: a kickboxing system based on the principles and concepts originated by Dr. Guillermo Lengson of the Karate Federation of the Philippines. It was developed by Christopher "Topher" Ricketts and Rey Galang and is a part of their curriculum for the Bakbakan International martial arts association that they founded.
• Tadyakamao: a striking system developed by Filipino martial arts master Vicente "Vic" Ferrer as a part of his empty hand section of his "Disiplinados Kali" system. Originally calling it Mano-Mano/Sikaran or Mano-Mano Boksing in order not to confuse it with his Mano-Mano self-defense system (which in addition to everything in Tadyakamao, includes training in weapon awareness and dumog, Ferrer derived its techniques from several Philippine practices of training and self-defence, most notably Mano-Mano, Sikaran (the Filipino martial art of foot-fighting with an oral history since the 1500s from the Rizal province of which Ferrer is a ranked master of, which is confusingly also used for general kicking techniques), and Ferrer’s training with Lethwei practitioner Jose Nunez Lim. It places an intense emphasis on infighting with the use of the sturdiest bones of the body; open hand, closed fists, elbows, forearms, knees, shins, and heels. Other unique aspects is that both defence and offence are emphasized simultaneously in a concept called "suntokalasag", where striking and blocking have the same shape and posture, and it also uses fluid weaving motions that are designed to conserve energy. Due to its movement and stances that resemble the careful and silent motion of a tiger stalking its prey, it has been nicknamed Boksing Tigre ("Tiger Boxing"). It also features a belt ranking system.
• Stickboxing: a blend of Filipino stickfighting and kickboxing... yes really. Its creation is credited to the late master Theodore "Ted" Lucaylucay, one of the first graduates of Dan Inosanto’s Academy in both Kali and Jeet Kune Do with training in many other forms of martial arts aside from those, namely being a western boxing champion in Hawaii like his father and grandfather. It is supposedly a modified version of Filipino stickfighting duels done before World War Two, as the US army banned its original form due to it being too dangerous as it is said that duels usually ended in permanent injury and disability or death, either for one or sometimes both opponents. Originally, the duels allowed participants the use of sticks called “bahi” or “kamagoon” which were made from ironwood, a wood heavier and harder than rattan training sticks, while stickboxing uses long cylindrical nylon stick padded with canvas and only a single stick is used in competitions. Additionally, stickboxing uses light protective equipment compared modern arnis competitions which uses head to toe padding covered armor, with headgear that consists of a wire mesh face cage attached to boxing-style headgear or a hockey-type helmet, padded gloves for both hands, one to hold the stick to strike with and the other hand is "bare", elbow pads are used but knee pads usually are not because of the limitations they place on mobility. Strikes can be delivered with the tip, the center and the butt of the stick as well as with the hand that grips it, in conjunction with the "empty" hand for blocking and punching along with both elbow and knee strikes from both sides (offensive knee strikes, though legal, are delivered at less than full power, with the objective being not to injure but to score points). Competition fights consist of rounds timed at either two or three minutes depending on the class and skill level of the fighters. Outside competition, techniques taught include headbutts, throws, takedowns, and even ground fighting with submissions for self defense. It eventually got taken up and expanded upon by other Inosanto students like the infamous Dog Brothers who took the concept and allowed in grappling (as well as headbutts and even groin shots) and using other weapons in their "Real Contact Stick Fighting" bouts during their "gatherings" and lesser known groups like Sayoc Kali practitioners, who also follows the Dog Brothers example and sometimes even organize matches without the use of protective equipment at all.

Chinese kickboxing

• Full Contact Kung Fu: it should come as no surprise that kung fu practitioners would also attempt to prove themselves in the world of full contact. Given the multitude of styles in existence, it would be impossible account for all of them and their varied rulesets, so the following styles will account for the most "open" of formats.
  • Sanshou or Sanda: a Chinese variation similar to Shootboxing, just without the standing submissions. Originally developed as a military fighting system (known as Junshi Sanshou/Sanda) based on the study of various styles of kung fu, the sport version (known as Yundong or Jinzheng Sanshou/Sanda) ultimately became kickboxing-like, only with the addition of throws, takedowns, sweeps and even leg catches, aa typical in kung fu styles. Uniquely, matches can take place in either a boxing ring or an elevated platform called a lei tai, which is basically a ring without ropes and is a throwback to the old days of Chinese kung fu duels. Matches on the lei tai contain different rules, for it allows (in fact encourages) throwing opponents off the platform to score points and/or defeat the opponent should they be thrown off enough times. Like Muay Thai in Thailand, it is the most popular combat sport in its country of origin and it has steadily been growing its pool of talent on the international scale since the 90s. Sanda also enjoys official backing from the Chinese government and is considered one of the two "official" Wushu styles, along with Taolou — forms or sequences of movements.
  • Guoshu Lei Tai or Kuoshu Lei Tai: a lesser known Chinese variation developed in Taiwan. It has its foundations from the Central Guoshu/Kuoshu Academy formed in Nanjing in 1928, before the Communists took over China and the Nationalist government moved to Taiwan. The term Guoshu/Kuoshu means "national art" and is a politically charged way of saying "kung fu" by being democratically opposed to its rival Communist sibling, the better-known Mainland Chinese wushu ("war art"). Its early tournaments were eeriely similar to the first UFC events, just without any groundfighting or the confines of the cage obviously, and almost got outlawed after the 5th World Chinese Kuoshu Tournament in 1986 due to the many injuries from green fighters, charges of rampant favoritism in the judging and the requirement that the fighters wear garden gloves. This led to changes to the rules and structure of their competitions for safety and fairness in judging. Aside from exclusively using the lei tai platform, it differs from its more popular cousin by using MMA gloves instead of boxing gloves which allow for better grappling, does not give points for elbow and knee strikes from the clinch (though they are still legal strikes from that position and points are given if they are thrown when not clinching), and allowing shoes of all things. It never got to be as popular as its mainland counterpart due to the lack of a pro circuit, though there was an organisation called Pro KuoShu UK that attempted make a pro league and even added a 10 second limit for groundfighting similar to Kudo and early Shooto, though it seems to be defunct now.
  • Shou Bo: a modern offshoot of the Chinese wrestling martial art of shuai jiao. Created in France of all places by a Chinese shuai jiao practitioner named Yuan Zumou who wanted to spread shuai jiao in France, founded the French Association of Shuai Jiao to do so and created a new ruleset in the hopes that it would help popularise it and the French Shou Bo Association to spread it. There are records dating back to the Han dynasty of a style of unarmed, no-holds-barred fighting called shou bo, which is where modern shou bo gets its name, though obviously nowhere near as brutal as depicted in the past. Like normal shuai jiao it requires its competitors to wear a yi (jacket), dai (belt), kuzi (trousers), and xie (wrestling boots), though unlike regular shuai jiao they also need MMA gloves and headgear and because it is supposed to be more focused on the wrestling part of the sport, the rules prohibit kicking with the shin, knee strikes, elbow strikes, punches to the face, and striking while holding the jacket.

French kickboxing

• Savate or Boxe Française: a French variation with an interesting history and distinct appearance. Originally developed by French sailors from the ports of Marseille to supplement their weapons when boarded by pirates (with names referring to that early style like Jeu Marseillais ("Game from Marseille"), Chausson ("Slipper") or Chausson Marseillais) and then exported to street fighting into cities like Paris, mainly based on kicks and palm strikes as the French government had considered that the closed fist was an illegal deadly weapon at the beginning of the 19th Century. It later added English boxing, French folk wrestling, and even weapons training with sticks, staffs, canes, daggers, knives, even overcoats and chairs to its curriculum as it was used in the street fights in Paris between the 1870s and World War I, to eventually have it restricted again and become the modern sport version seen today. Official competitions use the intégrale (looks like a wrestling singlet with long pants) or a customized vest and trousers combination as the uniform, and is the only kickboxing-like sport where shoes are not only legal, but mandatory. Practitioners uses glove colours to indicate a fighter's level similar to the belt system in other arts, with beginners having no colours. There are three different rank paths practitioners are allowed to follow: 1) The Technical Road, which covers the level one is allowed to learn the techniques of the art, 2) The Competition Road, which covers the level of competition one is allowed to engage in, 3) The Instructor Road, which covers the level one is allowed to teach techniques, as well as other stuff like anatomy, regulations of savate, first aid certification, and even refereeing. Moving to a higher colour rank is a ceremonial role as buying gloves of different colours would be impractical and expensive, with qualifications for competitions differing between associations or commissions. Competitions also make practitioners use a rather limited arsenal, as there are only four kinds of kicks allowed (all foot kicks) along with four kinds of punches allowed, though the best practitioners know how to get creative with them - and outside competition maintains its old streetfighting arsenal under names like Savate de Dėfense ("Défense Savate"), Defense dans la Rue ("Defense in the Street") or Savate de Rue ("Street Savate"), other self defense systems that use savate as its base like Danse de Rue Savate ("Dance of the Street Savate", created in Texas of all places by Professor Paul-Raymond Buitron III, which combines old school savate with zipota, a martial art with questionable origins that is said to be related to savate, also taught primarily in Texas), Boxe de Rue ("Street Boxing", created by Robert Paturel, which notably adds its own tonfa training method to its list of weapons training, which is officially used by the French police), and the rarer Re-Constructed Historical Savate (or to detractors "Re-Enacted Savate", a style constructed from the old textbooks written in the late 19th or early 20th century, which is considered a part of Historical European Martial Arts by serious practitioners or a joke by detractors). Modern codified sport savate uses three levels of competition:
  • Assaut: the least intense level, requires the competitors to focus on their techniques while still making contact; referees will assign penalties for the use of excessive force.
  • Pre-Combat: the intermediate intense level, allows for full-strength fighting so long as the fighters wear protective gear such as helmets and shinguards.
  • Combat: the most intense level, is the same as pre-combat, but protective gear other than groin protection and mouthguards are prohibited.
    • Chauss'fight: a French style that was once very closely associated with savate and was hosted by the Fédération Française de SAVATE Boxe Française et Disciplines Associées until 2009 and is now hosted by the Fédération Française de Kickboxing, Muaythai et Disciplines Associées. Created in January 2007 by Christian Robert, Jean Louis Borg, Frédéric Baret, and Laurent Bois with the aim of offering savate, kickboxing and Muay Thai practitioners a discipline that is halfway between the styles, its creators try to differentiate the style from savate by claiming it to be a modern and slightly more faithful recreation of "Chausson Marseillais". The uniform is long pants similar to American Kickboxing with the addition of savate shoes, with the allowance of the use of the shin to block and kick, and sweeps are also allowed, though clinching, knees and elbows are not allowed. There was an attempt by Milan Vanik in 2016 to bring it to the United Kingdom under the name "Chauss Boxing" (with him being credited as its creator for some reason), but it never caught on.
    • Savate Pro: technically the fourth level of savate competition and was created to replace Chauss'fight when its jurisdiction was moved from the FF Savate to the FFKMDA in 2009. It is basically the same as Chauss'fight, just with no sweeping.

Korean kickboxing

• Kyuk Too Ki, Gyeog Tu Gi or Korean Kickboxing: an extinct form of kickboxing developed by Koo Pan-Hong, the then head of the Korea Taekwondo Association in Gwangju, Jeonnam (South Jeolla Province) in 1964, at least according to the Korea Kickboxing Association. In an effort to create the most effective martial art possible, Pan-Hong mixed his taekwondo with boxing, judo and wrestling, into an art which allowed punches, kicks, throws, even joint locks and chokes. All of that development was abandoned when Osamu Noguchi came to Korea in 1968 to invite Korean fighters to participate in his kickboxing events and it was eventually decided that Kyuk Too Ki/Gyeog Tu Gi would be classified as kickboxing, and agreed on international exchanges between Korea and Japan. Its name is now used as a general term for kickboxing and even MMA in Korea.
  • Pro Taekwondo: like karate, taekwondo could also be considered a "kickboxing" style in the wider sense, though pro taekwondo embodies it the best. It is basically taekwondo under full contact rules, though it features a rule where points are deducted if more than two punches are thrown before a kick is thrown and is also fought in a ring instead of tatami mats. It was formed by Shin Yoon-heon and Park Youn-Soo of the Moon Moo Kwan in the early 1960s in order to focus on developing practical techniques for taekwondo (probably inspired by development of kickboxing and Kyuk Too Ki above), forming their own competition rules for taekwondo before founding the Korea Pro Taekwondo Federation in 1970s (now the World Korea Pro Taekwondo Federation), though another master named Soo Hyun Ye split off to created the International Pro Taekwondo Federation/Association in 1979. While pro is in the name, it is misleading as it also has amateur competitions. It sort of underwent an experimental phase in the late 90s, doing things like fighting in shorts or long trousers instead of the traditional dorok etc, before it course corrected to avoid looking like a cheap knock off of other kickboxing styles. There are also a few unrelated styles that were also called Pro Taekwondo.
    • Pro TKD: the first was developed by United States Taekwondo Committee president Doug Fuechsel under modified WTF rules that got some attention as a series on ESPN2, though it only lasted from 1997 to 1998. Fighters had no protective equipment and was fought on tatami mats.
    • ITF Pro: the second was developed by Croatian ITF stylist Anto Nobilo (under the ITF based on Austria) starting in 2007 with the hope of creating a "World Pro Taekwondo League", it differs from the above by limiting hand strikes to straight punches, with a maximum two can be thrown in a series before a kick like the original one above, all other hand punches (hook, uppercut, elbow) be penalized by penalty points and can be fought on tatami and the ring.
    • Pro-Taekwon Kickboxing or PTK for short: the third is a system developed in 2009, which is exclusive and unique to schools under the UK ITF organisation (which is a branch under Choi Jung Hwa's ITF). It is ITF-style taekwondo mixed with western boxing in a continuous full contact setting with competitions fought in the ring.
  • Kun Gek Do or Gwon Gyok Do: a Korean kickboxing style that blends Taekwondo and Muay Thai. According to its history, it was founded by Jung Do-Mo who had nearly 30 years' experience in the martial arts, particularly Taekwondo, witnessed a demonstration match between a traditional Taekwondo stylist and a Muay Thai fighter, which ended with taekwondo stylist being soundly beaten, which led him to training in Muay Thai for a few years and then decided that the combination of Taekwondo and Muay Thai could create a martial art stronger than Muay Thai or Taekwondo alone. It still retains a belt system and uniform from Taekwondo, though practitioners generally wear standard kickboxing attire when in professional matches.

African kickboxing

• Dambe or Dembe: a variation from the Hausa people of Nigeria. Similar to the Irish Travellers bare-knuckle boxing traditions, its origins come from clans of Hausa fisherman and butcher caste groups traveling to farm villages at harvest time to challenge each other to settle disputes before it evolved into local harvest festival entertainment, apparently as a result of translating spear and shield fighting to a relatively safer hand-to-hand contest. Its unique features start with how the hands are used, one hand is considered the strong-side fist, traditionally known as the "spear", is wrapped in a piece of cloth covered by tightly knotted cord and used to strike the opponent (some sources claim that boxers in the past would dip their spear in sticky resin mixed with bits of broken glass and was eventually banned, just like a similar myth from Muay Thai). The other hand, called the "shield", would as the name implies act as a defensive hand, is held as a bare open palm facing toward the opponent, said hand can be used to block, grab, or clinch. Kicks and sweeps are also usually allowed (some older rulesets don't allow them since you aren't really expected to kick efficiently with a real spear and shield), with sources claiming that traditional matches required fighters to have one leg wrapped in a chain, though modern matches have done away with that. Matches last three rounds, though modern rules use time limits, traditionally there weren't any so rounds ended when: 1) there is no activity, 2) one of the participants or an official calls a halt, or 3) a participant's hand, knee, or body touches the ground, which is considered "killing the opponent", these rules are still in effect today. Traditional bouts had fighters wear a loincloth called warki, though modern bouts have participants wear shorts instead. Traditional matches took place in a cleared area called the "battlefield", with spectators forming the boundaries of the area, some modern urban bouts take place in temporary rings, often setup outside meatpacking plants as members of traditional butcher castes still predominate, while larger bouts in large towns use sand filled West African Lutte Traditionnelle (traditional wrestling) arenas. While it is not well known, the sport has received mainstream attention from Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development as its minister, Sunday Dare pledged in December 2019 to create a national league plus cooperating with the Dambe Sport Association to form a federation for organizing competitions and tournaments across and outside Nigeria, and several organizations like the African Warriors Fighting Championship and Dambe Warriors Championship have been bringing it to English speaking audiences.
• Moraingy or Morengy: a variation from Madagascar. Originating from the Maroseranana dynasty of the Sakalava Kingdom of western coastal Madagascar, it is a bare-fisted (though modern bouts allow fighters to wear hand wraps) fighting sport and martial art with punches predominating but with some kicks permitted. Matches by tradition are accompanied by music, often salegy (a popular music genre from Madagascar) to induce a trance-like state in the fighters and participants, contributing to the spiritual and communal experience of the fight. As part of this experience, participants typically engage in dances during and between the matches that are meant to provoke the supporters of the opposing party, while the crowd cheers and jeers loudly. A typical competition consists of a series of matches pitting two fighters, typically from different villages, against one another. Prior to the fight, all the fighters parade around in the outdoor arena (typically a soccer field) to size up and select their potential adversaries, while the spectators who ring the field cheer, sing and attempt to provoke the fighters. The matches are announced and each clan sings its own chant in support of the fighter from its village. Traditional matches last only one round and ends when one of the fighters exits the arena, faints, is no longer able to defend himself, is clearly unequal to the other, or is determined to be seriously injured, though modern matches have at least 2 rounds and a single "ring rope" is set up to prevent fighters from stepping out of the arena. The judges of the match declare a victor and no contesting of the determination is permitted; both participants are cheered by the spectators for their efforts in the match. Although moraingy is primarily concentrated in the coastal regions of Madagascar where it was historically popularized, Malagasy migrants took the sport with them when traveling overseas and spread to neighboring Indian Ocean islands including Réunion, Mayotte, Comoros, Seychelles and Mauritius. In Reunion Island, a French territory 500 kilometers east of Madagascar, where a large number of Malagasy people were brought by the French to work as slave laborers on sugar plantations, the sport took root under the name Moringue or Batay Kreol. Originally limited to the laborer's quarters of the sugar plantations, in 2005 it was recognized by the Reunion government as an official sport of the island. The popularization of the sport is in part due to a growing acknowledgement of the Malagasy and African origins of the island's Creole community. The Reunionais form of moraingy is less violent and more inspired by the choreography and acrobatics of Brazilian Capoeira than the original Malagasy form which was supposedly inspired by the Polynesian martial art of Kapu Kuialua and Malaysian Tomoi. The use of jumps and stomping makes it spectacular. As in Madagascar, music is played throughout moringue matches, typically consisting of percussion or Reunionais maloya music. The government recognition of the sport was intended to foster a sense of pride and identity for the large Creole youth population of Reunion island. Moringue is now organized like other mainstream sports, with about 1000 licensees, and receives local media attention.

South American kickboxing

• Burlamaqui‘s Rules: a ruleset developed for Capoeira of all things in an attempt to legitimize it into a Brazilian national sport. Created by Anibal “Mestre Zuma” Burlamaqui, an advocate for a more fighting-oriented style of capoeira which he referred to as Gymnástica Nacional (“National Gymnastics”) since capoeira was still a stigmatized street practice at the time. In 1928, he published the first capoeira training manual, “Gymnástica nacional (capoeiragem), methodisada e regrada”, where he introduced “boxing-like” rules for capoeira competition, specifically adapting it for fights in the ring. It was done without music, had three minutes rounds with two minutes of rest in between and capoeiristas were to dress in shorts, shirts and boxing ankle boots. Techniques allowed included; kicks, open hand strikes (they wore no gloves), closed fist punches, sweeps, and stand-up grappling, though on at least one occasion, a modification was allowed for groundfighting. Unfortunately, the rules seemed to mostly be used to settle duels between different schools of capoeira, if they didn’t just do it through full vale tudo rules, and eventually fell out of favour for what capoeira is now.
• Takanakuy: an annual Peruvian festival held on Christmas Day by the inhabitants of Chumbivilcas Province, near Cuzco that consists of dancing and most notably one-on-one fights to settle conflicts. Rules in the fights allow only punching and kicking and instantly disqualifies offenses like biting, hitting a grounded opponent, and pulling hair. Fighters traditionally have to wrap their hands in cloth, though there is an allowance for them to just go bare handed and modern hand wraps and MMA gloves are allowed now and footwear is rather liberal as they can fight barefoot, in sandals, in shoes, or in boots. While traditionally women were not allowed to fight, though modern times have allowed them to and these fights are called Warmi Takanakuy, but uniquely many choose to fight in traditional dresses and skirts on for some reason even though they are allowed more casual/practical wear. Fights are won by knockout (more like knockdown) or intervention by the official with most fights lasting less than three minutes, but if the loser of the fight disagrees with the outcome, he or she can appeal for another fight. At the start and at the end of the fight, the opponents must shake hands or give each other a hug.
• Runa Tinku or just Tinku: an annual Bolivian Aymara festival held on May 3th and 4th (and sometimes even extends to the 5th) that is similar to Takanakuy above. The differences from Takanakuy are that it also features brawls between groups, and historically fighters will often carry rocks in their hands to have greater force in their punches, or they will just throw them at opponents and even slingshots and whips are used. In fact, because of the similarities between Takanakuy and Tinku one-on-one fights, there has been some people who regularly travel from Peru to Bolivia and vice versa that go to each others festivals to fight.

Russian kickboxing

• Draka: a Russian variation that looks like a slightly modified version of sanda. Its origins are greatly contested except that it was developed in the late 80s, one group says it was developed by Nikolai Romanov at the Rossich Sports Club from a fusion of boxing, judo, karate, sambo, Muay Thai and other martial arts, another group says it was developed by veterans of the counter terrorism group Spetsgruppa "A" (also known as Alpha Group or Alfa) based on a modified form of ARB (see Sambo), while yet another group says it was created by a few sanda practitioners who decided to "Russianize" it into their own sport. It gained a bit of attention due to a few Pay-Per-Views in the US, brought over by Igor Ejov and his wife Marina Radionova, though kind of dropped out off the map after those events for a while. However, it now seems to have further evolved into a more MMA-style sport resembling pre-1994 Shooto, thanks to a 30 second time limit for groundfighting, though without knockdown counts in pro rules (amateur rules apparently each fighter is allowed two standing eight counts before the next knockdown means defeat) and with the allowance of ground-and-pound. Its modern form is known as Xtreme Gladiator in the USA and used by events promoted by the International Kickboxing Federation and the International Sport Combat Federation (where it is called DRAKA XG).
• Crimean Style: a variation created by Mekhtiyev Igor' Volodiyevich in the Republic of Crimea in 1995 based on other forms of kickboxing and Russian fist fighting traditions with the first competitions held in 2000. Originally called "Crimean Boxing", it features a couple of weird rulesets, both with light and full contact versions and both consists of 3 rounds. The first is simply called Crimean Style and has different rules in each round, the first round is like normal boxing, but is also allows backfists and hammerfists, the second round is basically the equivalent of American High Kick Only Rules, and the third round is basically Low Kick Rules except that kicking the inner thigh is banned. The other one is called Crimean Fist Fight, which is just 3 rounds with the rules of the first round of Crimean Style.

"Greek/Hellenic" kickboxing

• Pyx-Lax, Orthostadin Pagration, Ano Machia, or Ano Pankration: the kickboxing section of modern Pankration Athlima. It is still unclear whether the Ancient Greeks had a kickboxing-like component to go along with its boxing (pygmē/pygmachia), wrestling (palē) and pankration traditions, but that hasn’t stopped modern practitioners from allowing themselves to have one. Athletes wear the traditional uniform called endyma, composed of two parts: the upper part called cheitonion which is white and represents the clouds surrounding the planet earth and the bottom part named periskelis which is blue and represents the sea surrounding the continents. The technical and refereeing (hellanodikes) terms are in Greek. There is however differences between the rules from different organizations around the world.
  • The World Pangration Athlima Federation uses three (3) two (2) minute rounds with an interval of one (1) minute between each round. In case of a tie, an addition of one extra round is fought to decide the victor. In cases of large participation, the time of each round can be reduced to one minute and thirty seconds and the break between rounds down to thirty seconds. Blows to the face are allowed, knees and elbows are banned while the techniques like sweeps and stand up grappling are sort of unclear in their legality, the only way to score points is through punching and kicking.
  • The Australian Federation of Pankration Athlima uses two (2) two (2) minute rounds, allows elbows and knees to the body and scores points with them, all strikes to the face are banned, and allows throws, takedowns, clinching, sweeps, and trips. The rules are also referred to as Pankration Striking Rules.
  • The World Pan Hellenic United Pankration Athlima Federation, and the American Pankration Athlima Federation has two rulesets; Pyx-Lax Machia (striking only) and Pyx-Lax Rassein Apaly (striking with throws and takedowns). In both, while punching and kicking to the face is fine, elbows and knees are limited to the body though they do not score points, low kicks are similarly allowed but don’t score points, and sweeps are limited to the calves only.

Others

• Broughton Rules or Broughton’s Rules: the first standardized rules of English boxing when it was still bare knuckle only. Created by John "Jack" Broughton in 16 August 1743 in an attempt to lower the number of fatalities coming out of the ring due to its lack of rules, especially since he unintentionally killed an opponent of his named George Stevenson two years prior. It was a list of seven rules, most of which are still used in modern boxing, which introduced concepts like; hitting a downed opponent being forbidden, no grabbing of clothing or below the waist, referees to officiate the matches, and seconds (cornermen). Under Broughton’s rules though, instead of timed rounds and the modern 10-count knockdown rule, a round continued until a man went down (or on a knee); after 30 seconds he had to face his opponent (square off), standing no more than a yard (about a metre) away, or be declared beaten. Also since there is no mention of it in the rules, other strikes like kicks, elbows, knees, headbutts and even gouging and scratching were still technically allowed even though they were considered "unmanly", as well as grappling above the waist which included throws, clinching, strangulations, and even fibbing (where a boxer grabs hold of an opponent by the neck or hair and pummels him). These rules were eventually replaced by London Prize Ring Rules after almost a 100 years of use.
• Jun Fan Gung Fu, Jun Fan Kickboxing or Jeet Kune Do Kickboxing: Bruce Lee's school of martial arts before he farther developed it into Jeet Kune Do. Development goes back to 1962, where it was described as a heavily modified version of Wing Chun as it kept its trapping techniques alongside the striking techniques of several other kung fu styles and later added striking arts like boxing, savate, Muay Thai and several Filipino martial arts. Today it serves as the "base" of Jeet Kune Do, basically it is the beginning martial or physical aspect of JKD, taught alongside its concepts and philosophy.
• Kung Do Te: also known as Ruy San Ryu, it is a system developed by Ruy Manuel Raposo de Mendonça in Portugal in the 60s. A black belt in Shotokai karate and Ninjutsu Bunjinkan and also a trainer in the Portuguese military, he was inspired by what he believed to be the "completeness" of kung fu and then traveled to several countries to observe the best techniques of different fighting disciplines and began to test those techniques with his students. After a few years of improvement, he realized the potential of the new style for competitions and incorporated some techniques and characteristics of Western boxing, including gloves and the ring, making Kung Do Te one of the first full-contact martial art forms, even before the creation of American Kickboxing. It eventually became more of a MMA-style sport in the mid 2000s and shortened the name to Kung Do.
• Savate-Thai Cross Training or STX Kickboxing for short: a hybrid striking system developed by Dan Inosanto student and Shooto champion Erik Paulson as a compliment to his grappling/MMA system; Combat Submission Wrestling. It takes techniques from boxing, panantukan, taekwondo, Jun Fan/Jeet Kune Do Kickboxing, and especially from Savate and Muay Thai as stated in the name.
• Kali-Thaiboxing Cross Training or KTX Kickboxing for short: another hybrid striking system founded by Anton St James in 2015. It combines the Filipino martial arts concept of "de-fanging the snake" which focuses on the destruction of hands and limbs in order to gain entry to the vulnerable parts of the body combined with the striking skills and power of Muay Thai along with the versatility of boxing and kicks from American kickboxing.
• Premier Kickboxing: yet another hybrid striking system, this time by Chris Foran. A unique blend takes the discipline, structure and dynamic kicking techniques from Olympic Taekwondo and blends it with the power of Muay Thai and the head movement and speed of western boxing. Also known as Korean/Thai Xross Training or KTX Kickboxing for short which sometimes leads to confusion with the other one above.