Anyone remember kickboxing?

[masraum]

I was just a kid and thought that Karate, Ninjas and kickboxing were awesome in the early 80s.

I ran across this today. I had all but forgotten about kickboxing. So cool.

Exhibition match between Bill "Superfoot" Wallace and Joe Lewis when they were in their mid 40s. I remember thinking that superfoot was super cool. At the time, I didn't realize that superfoot only kicked with his left foot because before he got into Karate, he injured his right knee doing judo.



Benny "The Jet" Urquidez



I thought this was interesting, Superfoot Wallaces take on MMA/UFC vs kickboxing. He's about 70 now and could probably kick most of our butts. Impressive guy.



Wow, this guys clock gets cleaned.

[Bill Douglas]

When I was younger I was into street fighting and pub fighting, and a popular thing was French kickboxing. It was a bit more like MMA is today

[speeder]

I know a couple of kickboxing champs, one of them has transitioned into Muy Thai. I've also been kicked by Benny's brother, (the one holding his arm up after the fight), I have this weird fascination w seeing if I can take someone's punch or kick so I've been hit by a few notables. He was a nice guy and he obliged me w a sample kick to the gut, it bent me over.

[JJ 911SC]

Sail with his brother in the late 70's, the whole family were fighters but his brother Phil did not do it in a ring

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Yves_Thériault_(kickboxer)

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by afterburn 549

MMA is making all these guys look like Alterboys in a pushing match.

My daughter and I do Muay Thai and some of the people in our class fight in both kickboxing and Muay Thai. We went to one of the tournaments a couple months ago. I guarantee that they would hold their own in MMA.

It did, however, have a lot different action than these videos. The rules may be different these days.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by JJ 911SC

Sail with his brother in the late 70's, the whole family were fighters but his brother Phil did not do it in a ring

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Yves_Thériault_(kickboxer)

Yeah, "the Iceman". I saw some videos of him too.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by afterburn 549

MMA is making all these guys look like Alterboys in a pushing match.

Superfoot addresses that in the third video from the top. He says that kicking at the legs/knees is designed to damage your opponent so you can get them down and pound them. His comment is that what these guys don't get is that there is life after sport. He's 72 or something like that and still traveling and putting on seminars. A lot of these guys beating the crap out of each other are probably going to be in bad shape when they are older. It's always about how far you're willing to go to win. I know a martial arts instructor from Houston that auditioned for UFC about 20 years ago. He wasn't accepted because, IIRC, he broke someones wrist or arm. I've got to think that there's always some amount of holding back in this fighting, some amount of thinking X is fair, but Y is over the line. Watching some of the videos, you see acknowledgement from both fighters if there's an accidental headbutt or an accidental low blow. It seemed like it was pretty exceptional sportsmanship without trying to kill the other guy.

Originally Posted by speeder

I know a couple of kickboxing champs, one of them has transitioned into Muy Thai. I've also been kicked by Benny's brother, (the one holding his arm up after the fight), I have this weird fascination w seeing if I can take someone's punch or kick so I've been hit by a few notables. He was a nice guy and he obliged me w a sample kick to the gut, it bent me over.

Wow, that's quite the fascination.

[vash]

i went to a kickboxing match in Krabi. some beach town in Thailand. it was interesting to see the traditional side of things. i had zero idea what was going on. those people wail on each other. zero trash talk or mad dogging with eyes. before each match they would (with amazing grace)..glide hop around the ring with each other..to music. then BAM..

thai hookers everywhere. no thanks!!

[Rodsrsr]

Originally Posted by flipper35

My daughter and I do Muay Thai and some of the people in our class fight in both kickboxing and Muay Thai. We went to one of the tournaments a couple months ago. I guarantee that they would hold their own in MMA.

It did, however, have a lot different action than these videos. The rules may be different these days.

Well if they do both kickboxing and Muay Thai, that would make them a mixed martial artist by default. I think what afterburn meant was that an average MMA fighter of today would utterly destroy a 70's kickboxer, which is undoubtedly true. The popular combination seems to be basic Boxing/Muay Thai for strikes with wrestling for take downs, and just enough knowledge in BJJ to avoid getting subbed. Get full mount or even technical mount, ground and pound. Nothing fancy but it works.

[motion]

Originally Posted by vash

i went to a kickboxing match in Krabi. some beach town in Thailand. it was interesting to see the traditional side of things. i had zero idea what was going on. those people wail on each other. zero trash talk or mad dogging with eyes. before each match they would (with amazing grace)..glide hop around the ring with each other..to music. then BAM..

thai hookers everywhere. no thanks!!

LOL, we were in Krabi recently. I remember a lot of Thai fighting promotion going on. We didn't go to the fights.

[vash]

Originally Posted by motion

LOL, we were in Krabi recently. I remember a lot of Thai fighting promotion going on. We didn't go to the fights.

drunk..i considered buying a hotel there!! love that place.

and sorry above..i was being redundant with "thai hookers" in thailand. duh!

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by Rodsrsr

Well if they do both kickboxing and Muay Thai, that would make them a mixed martial artist by default. I think what afterburn meant was that an average MMA fighter of today would utterly destroy a 70's kickboxer, which is undoubtedly true. The popular combination seems to be basic Boxing/Muay Thai for strikes with wrestling for take downs, and just enough knowledge in BJJ to avoid getting subbed. Get full mount or even technical mount, ground and pound. Nothing fancy but it works.

Not really mixed as much as you think. KB is MT without knees or elbows. There is a lot of grappling in Muay Thai, at least in our class, that you can't do in KB either. So really it is using a limited set of your overall training.

I don't know what the rules are from the 80s but those guys would probably get whooped by a modern kick boxer as well.

I will say this, reflexes are everything. Sparring with my daughter will surprise me now and then when she catches a right cross and throws me on my back like a rag doll.

Here is an example of a well placed teep or foot jab where the recipient landed in the ropes:

[dyount]

Spent time training with Joe Lewis years ago and even have a photo in my office with the two of us after a seminar. I learned the most important thing from him was that although I was damn good I wasn't world class.
To the "MMA would kill these guys" folks you are forgetting a few bits of info. Most of the traditional Karatekia from back in the day didn't just do kickboxing but rather were trained in all aspects of karate including ground fighting and stand up. At the time there wasn't any way of competing other than judo, point karate (my specialty) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NICLQaT9u8 ,or kick boxing.
A well rounded karate fighter doesn't care if you're standing, on the ground, have a knife or whatever. Cause in our eyes we're already dead and have nothing to loose unlike the attacker .

[fred cook]

When I was an active instructor, we taught Taekwondo, Kickboxing and ground fighting at the school. The Kickboxing was fun, but for real defense, I prefer the Taekwondo. And, yes, I have fought some guys that could definitely put a whipping on you. After 20 years, I decided to retire to an easier life!

[Rodsrsr]

Originally Posted by flipper35

Not really mixed as much as you think. KB is MT without knees or elbows. There is a lot of grappling in Muay Thai, at least in our class, that you can't do in KB either. So really it is using a limited set of your overall training.

I don't know what the rules are from the 80s but those guys would probably get whooped by a modern kick boxer as well.

I will say this, reflexes are everything. Sparring with my daughter will surprise me now and then when she catches a right cross and throws me on my back like a rag doll.

Here is an example of a well placed teep or foot jab where the recipient landed in the ropes:

Not trying to start a pissing match, but if KB is MT "without" the knees, elbows, very limited grappling, and the clinch, than its just KB. You originally said that some of the guys in your class did both KB and MT which would make them somewhat of a mixed martial artist. A solid MT person (or someone like the guys in your class that do both) would at least have a good chance in an MMA fight. They know how to defend against take downs and clinch up. A KB lacks these skills and only has strikes with zero take downs and zero grappling, which is why an average MMA fighter would simply close the distance, take down, ground & pound, or chock out/submit if he's got BJJ experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2updReP5aM

[MRM]

Whenever I hear kickboxing I think of this scene with John Cusack in Say Anything.

https://youtu.be/UUZsR3rFjEU

[MRM]

And Cusack's experience in that movie lead to a real interest in kickboxing that in turn lead to this scene in Grosse Pointe Blank, otherwise known as the Shakespeare of the 1990s https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H0ScNLt2zNc

[masraum]

Originally Posted by MRM

And Cusack's experience in that movie lead to a real interest in kickboxing that in turn lead to this scene in Grosse Pointe Blank, otherwise known as the Shakespeare of the 1990s https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H0ScNLt2zNc

And the other guy in that scene is Benny the Jet U from one of the videos above.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by MRM

Whenever I hear kickboxing I think of this scene with John Cusack in Say Anything.

https://youtu.be/UUZsR3rFjEU

I don't really remember that scene, but I remember the one where he's sparing and gets distracted and kicked in the face and the one where he talks to her father about kickboxing.

[Rodsrsr]

That s**t is so fake its funny.