So this question came up on the MMA forum regarding Mike Bisping's kickboxing background. Someone mentioned that Bisping didn't have a strong muay thai record, but was more accomplished in kickboxing. Leading me to wonder this: What is there in terms of kickboxing in the UK? This is going to sound ignorant, I realize. But my sense was that kickboxing in Britain essentially was muay thai. Or perhaps savate or the occassional sanshou. I don't know. But I wasn't thinking of a British equivalent to "American kickboxing." Your Jean Yves Theriault or "Superfoot" Wallace. So is there a more general "kickboxing" format in the UK?
Yeah, 10-20 years ago "Full Contact" was much more prevalent than Muay Thai in the UK. Many of those clubs have now morphed into K1 and/or Muay Thai clubs, but there's still a fair few around.
Kickboxing in the UK seems to me to often be the reserve of the "semi-contact" lot. It's often used as a catch all term by people that run "black belt academies". Not bad in and of itself but it's just not something I'd seek out. It's too nebulous to be meaningful. I think kickboxing didn't quite get underway in the UK before Thai/semi-contact became more popular so it got left behind in popularity. It's not as easy as semi-contact, not as complete as Thai so it sits in a weird middle ground.
That doesn't sound completely dissimilar from "American kickboxing." Though I think American kickboxing has a fairly strong history, thanks to full-contact karate's legacy and the likes of Benny the Jet, Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace, Jean Yves-Theriault, and countless others that (sadly) I could spout off the top of my head.
