The true roots of Kickboxing can be found to date back 2000 years ago in Far East Asia, where Muay Thai Kickboxing was commonly practised as a self- defence discipline. However it gradually became more of a sport over the years. Thaiboxing soon became the most common and popular fighting sport in Asia. MuayThai - Kickboxing was controlled by the Thailand government, under the name of WMTC ( World MuayThai Council ).

The main proponent that gave way to the rise of Kickboxing was Bruce Lee, making the link with the United States, making way for the future of International Kickboxing. By the late Twentieth century the sport Kickboxing was starting to take its own original form. The strong urge for a Full contact sport, overtaking the rigid rules and boundaries of Karate, led to an all- new evolved version of Full contact Kickboxing. The initial International Championship for this sport was held in Los Angeles in 1974. This move was highly regarded by many leading Karate masters at the time, many encouraged and made eager attempts at the newly recognised sport. Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace, Jeff Smith & Isuena Duenas were the fist actual champions in this sport. For most of this period the most formal and accepted international sanctioning group was the PKA founded in America. Its founders made the first link with the media as they organised televised reports of championships being held around the globe. The group also formed the first fighter’s rating systems. Among the stars of this new system were Jean-Yves Theriault, Jerry Trimble and Brad Hefton. In 1975, Georges Bruckner created the first European Amateur Organization. He named it WAKO ( World All Style Karate Organisation ). It was soon seen as a strong rival to the original PKA group based in the US. However, in recent years, after the Italian Ennio Falsoni took control from WAKO’s German founder, the group has become the most highly recognised amateur federation in Kickboxing.