The History of Fitness Kickboxing

Learn about fitness kickboxing and how it all began. Although the history doesn't date back very far, there is still some debate as to how it was invented. Some believe it began in the US with a group of Americans who were tired of the lack of contact involved in karate. However, there is harder evidence that shows that kickboxing began in Japan a decade or so before it made the move to the US.

Osamu Noguchi, a Japanese boxing promoter, is credited with being the person who invented kickboxing. He was looking for a form of martial arts to challenge Muay Thai. One of the aspects of Muay Thai which Noguchi wished to change the most was the physical contact. Noguchi believed that Muay Thai should involve much more physical contact than it did.

Noguchi took three Muay Thai fighters to fight against Japanese karate fighters. The two disciplines of martial arts fought using a full-contact style, something which was not quite natural to them; the Muay Thai fighters were defeated. After that Noguchi, along with fighter Kenji Kurosaki, studied both martial arts closely to determine which would be the most effective fighting style. Together they came up with kickboxing, although at the time it was initially called karate-boxing.

Kickboxing became popular in Japan, gaining TV time and featuring one of Japan's most popular athletes of the time, Tadashi Sawamura. Today, kickboxing still closely resembles a more physical version of Muay Thai. Many of the rules remain the same, although some have been changed for the safety of the fighters. As kickboxing spread to different countries around the world, rules have been further modified. Still, Noguchi and Japan retain the right to claim kickboxing as their own.