History of WKA

Kickboxing History

During the early seventies the martial arts world was shaken to its foundations by the demands made on it by a fresh new generation of practitioners. Fighters started looking for a competitive format in which they could use their skills with full effect and power in bouts fought to the knockout. The development of specialized protective equipment sped up the evolution of this new sport, which became known as kickboxing. Between 1970 and 1973 a handful of kickboxing events were staged across the USA. In the early days the rules were never clear. In fact, one of the first tournaments had no weight divisions and all competitors fought until only one was left standing. A very young Benny Urquidez reached the final. Weighing in at 140 lbs Urquidez faced the 196 lbs Dana Goodson. Urquidez won the tournament by pinning Goodson to the floor for more than 10 seconds, which was part of the rules at the time.

WKA Beginnings and Early History

The martial arts are one of the most diverse categories of sports disciplines in the world. For example, you can only play football, tennis or baseball one way. Almost all sports are practised to a universal conformity. Martial arts, on the other hand, is a generic term used to cover combat forms from all over the world and is broken down into various styles and forms of fighting. There are many colourful and exciting disciplines encompassed within these indigenous fighting arts.

From Japan we have Karate, Jiu Jitsu, Judo and Aikido. From Korea there is Tae-Kwon-Do, Hapkido and Kuk-Sool-Won. From Thailand there is Muay Thai (Thai Boxing). Bando from Burma and from China there is the generic term Kung Fu that encompasses at least 500 different styles of empty hand fighting. Here in the West, we brought the world various forms of wrestling and boxing. To the uninitiated it seems like an endless list of combat systems all competing under different rules and techniques.

In the early 1970’s with the advent of the Bruce Lee films the popularity of East Asian fighting systems were brought to the global mainstream. What occurred was one of the strangest and most unique sports happenings ever experienced. Within two decades the various martial arts systems experienced a boom time which resulted in millions and millions of practitioners from around the world taking up one discipline or another. In the beginning, most people turned to the martial arts as a way to get fit and stay healthy or for more esoteric purposes. However, it was only natural that people’s urge to test their skills against fellow practitioners quickly caused these art forms to evolve into competitive sports.

Practically overnight modern sport competitions grew up around the ancient disciplines. At the world level, however, there lacked an infrastructure and formal set of rules to govern the sports and properly address the elements of danger within each combat art. Various groups came forward to unite the Eastern martial arts under one umbrella organization but each attempt failed. It was not until the World Kickboxing Association (WKA) was formed in 1973 that a viable world body appeared on the scene with the organizational momentum to bring together the various sports.

Within a few short years the WKA world organization encompassed a global network of member countries across all 5 continents with representatives each running successful national WKA organizations. Prestigious national and international WKA tournaments were held throughout the world that provided competitors with talent-filled venues where they could compete for a truly legitimate world champion title.

The WKA Begins to Grow

By the early 1980’s The American Sports Magazine (Sports Today) estimated that the martial arts were the third most practised sport in the world - with over 20 million people training in one discipline form or another. The impact of the WKA on world martial arts as a whole was revolutionary. It was the first global martial arts body to sanction fights, create ranking systems and to institute a development program. At the grass roots level, children of all ages competed under a uniform set of rules and could train in their individual disciplines through a vast network of WKA satellite clubs in hundreds of cities and towns across the globe which ensured the growth of the sport for years to come.

Within a decade of its formation, the WKA’s ring sports were world-renowned. This success was followed by a development in the USA that led to the biggest re-shaping of sport martial arts since its inception: the advent of ‘freestyle fighting’. The freestyle fighting sport allowed practitioners across the various disciplines to meet on a mat - instead of the traditional boxing ring - all under a common set of combat rules. Jiu Jitsu against Karate, Aikido against Kung Fu, Kickboxers against Tae Kwon Do, etc.

This revolution in competitive martial arts took the world by storm and the WKA was naturally the first world body to pit the very best fighters from all disciplines against one another under a single rules system. The introduction of freestyle fighting at the WKA World Championships was a resounding success which solidified the demand for this new open fighting division. WKA quickly followed up with its next major innovation: children’s divisions which allowed boys and girls as young as 10 years old to compete in sport martial arts on the world stage. These and other innovations have ensured the continued growth of the sport for many generations to come.

The WKA Today

Today the WKA enjoys great success at all levels on a global scale. The organization has permanent national representatives in more than 90 countries and regularly holds local, regional and national competitions culminating in the annual WKA World Championships which brings together all amateur martial artists under a single competitive format.

Each member country within the WKA is represented by a president who is responsible for their country’s implementation of the organization’s rules and regulations and for staying abreast of developments in sport martial arts in their territory. The WKA governance structure includes a rules committee, a health and safety committee, a referees organization and lastly all national representatives meet once per year for an annual democratic congress where the organization’s rules and regulations are discussed and voted upon.