Kickboxing, despite its action-packed and brutal shows, is not a sport you’d see most people watch or talk about. Overshadowed by the ever-growing MMA and still not surpassing the slowly declining boxing.
Despite the growing number of people taking kickboxing and Muay Thai classes and the continuous love and support for the martial art itself, interest in the sport and the shows are still quite low.
But why is kickboxing such an underrated sport?
Well, we can attribute it to multiple issues. Let’s compare it to other combat sports that have had more success. Mainly, it is the marketing and the separation it has from its different counterparts.
Kickboxing organizations seem to not put in as much effort in marketing the sport, and most people don’t even know what “kickboxing” really is. Let’s take a deeper look into this.
So what is kickboxing?
Kickboxing is a fairly vague term, especially to most casual fans. Some would think of it literally as boxing with kicks. Others immediately think of Muay Thai, whose popularity increased in the past years but never translated to viewership and casual interest in the sport.
We can interpret kickboxing in multiple ways. Its most well-known interpretation is that of American kickboxing: a combat sport utilizing punches and kicks, historically a combination of boxing and karate styles.
In a broader sense, it’s any combat sport that uses punches and kicks. Muay Thai, Lethwei, and Yaw-yan are examples; all of which also use elbows and knees. These are basically different variations of kickboxing coming from their respective countries, with their own differences.
By now, you would have noticed that the variations in name and slight differences in rules separate kickboxing from each other. This can cause confusion for most people and overlook the sport since, hey, MMA also incorporates kickboxing anyway.
MMA is the rising combat sport
So why is MMA gaining so much popularity these days?
First, let’s go over why MMA is so beloved by its fans.
It’s action-packed because of the different ways a fighter can win. The longer round time (5 minutes in the UFC) and shorter number of rounds also contribute to this.
The different styles each fighter possesses, together with their personalities, make them much more interesting, and the fights and match-ups more exciting.
The different MMA organizations also went ham on the marketing.
UFC, Bellator, ONE Championship, and several others are massive successes, mostly because of the effort they give into marketing themselves. They capitalize on using the internet and social media to gain the interest of the masses. They also value the importance of timely matchmaking and potential superstars.
What can kickboxing do?
Now, kickboxing has an argument for flashy and brutal fights. There are more methods of winning than in boxing, and the style differences are still fairly noticeable. But they don’t have world-renowned superstars like MMA and boxing.
Most Muay Thai fans/practitioners know about Buakaw and Saenchai and, thanks to the internet, have probably seen some clips of them. Still, anyone outside the world of kickboxing probably won’t recognize them, and without prominent stars, most people aren’t inclined or motivated to watch it.
So what can they do?
Amp up the action. ONE Championship uses MMA gloves (4oz) for their Muay Thai matches, which intensifies and makes every fight more exciting to watch; an interesting format other organizations could try to implement. Decreasing the number of rounds and increasing the time is also a suggestion some make for boxing that applies to kickboxing as well.
Promote their superstars better. Superstars make your sport and organization. They are the reason casual and regular viewers tune in. The bigger the draw, the more eyes on the sport and more money to be made, which can help improve production value and incentive for future athletes.
Will the day ever come when kickboxing reaches the success and hype of both boxing and MMA? For now, we can’t really tell. With different kickboxing organizations trying their best to market the sport, trying out new stuff that can grab people’s attention, it certainly isn’t impossible.
Hopefully, one day, kickboxing will reach the fame and glory it truly deserves. All it takes is one organization that will get things right, figure out that one move that changes everything and catches the interest of fight fans all around the world.
