Who has won titles in boxing and kickboxing?

[Perseus]

Professional titles in both, not an amateur championship in one sport and a pro title in the other.
I know there are fighters who won titles in both sports but have never come across a site that keeps a list.

[Noxy]

Troy Dorsey comes to mind

[littlepug]

A few Thais have won boxing and Muay Thai (definitely tougher sport than kickboxing) world titles Sot Chitlada being one of them, I think Vitali Klit won titles in Kickboxing as did Matt Skelton

[gilgamesh]

Samart Payakaroon

I'm sure there are others. Several Muay Thai fighters have competed in both sports.

[margaret thatcher]

Sergey Lipinets I think

You mean world titles? Cause I know Whyte also won pro titles in kickboxing and boxing but not world titles. Ustinov was also a successful kickboxer, probably actually world class (he was a lot lighter too) in his peak and with loads of pro kickboxing fights.

[Perseus]

Yes, I meant word titles.
Probably should have said that in the thread title.

Sam Soliman is another one.

I was hoping somebody knows of a site that keeps a list but apparently there is no such website.

[margaret thatcher]

Part of the confusion for me is knowing which kickboxing orgs are actually pro...there are so many lol.

Briedis was a good kickboxer and had 70 kickboxing fights and there are some of them online. Again, not sure if that is pro or not.

[gilgamesh]

Part of the confusion for me is knowing which kickboxing orgs are actually pro...there are so many lol.

Briedis was a good kickboxer and had 70 kickboxing fights and there are some of them online. Again, not sure if that is pro or not.

Yeah Kickboxing varies from country to country it seems.

I know being a K-1 Champion is about as big as it gets. Glory now is a major Kickboxing promotion, and being a Glory Champion is a big deal.

Then as far as Thailand goes there's a couple of stadiums that are synonymous with it like being the Champion of Lumpini Stadium (which essentially means you're the Champion of Muay Thai, at least in your weight class)

I think there's another major stadium too which holds a lot of prestige, but I forget what it's called. Starts with an R.

I know there's also ISKA.

There was a form of Kickboxing in the 80's that was popular where they would only allow Kicks to from waist up, but you hardly ever see that type anymore.

Basically European style Kickboxing, and Muay Thai are the norm.

[mjaco]

Haven't been on here in a long time but this post caught my eye, mainly because I wrote an article on it for Ring about a million years ago. The one main name among male fighters who I didn't see mentioned would be James Warring, who won a kickboxing title and a world cruiserweight boxing title. I think there was another Thai, besides Samart, who won in both back in the early 1970s but can't recall his name. There may be some others - possibly Khaosai Galaxy - who won in both, though Thais like to differentiate their muay Thai from kickboxing.

Among females, the big one is Lucia Rijker, who was far and away the best female kickboxer of all time and some would argue the best female boxer ever. I believe Graciela Casillas also won "world titles" in kickboxing and boxing.

I put "world titles" in quotes because kickboxing is the one sport that's organizationally even more messed up than boxing. As Gilgamesh pointed out, it varies around the world with about a million groups claiming to have world champions. In the 1970s and early 1980s the 2 big kickboxing organizations were the PKA (the one that didn't allow leg kicks) and WKA. After that the ISKA became big and K-1 came along, though they never really had world champions in the classic sense. Instead they had a tournament every year to crown a new champion. Currently the Glory organization is the big promotion and being champion of that is as close as you'd get to being a world champion. There is also WAKO which is primarily an amateur organization. Someone had mentioned Klitschko as being a champion in both but I think his kickboxing title was in WAKO.

Like I said, Thai boxing likes to differentiate themselves from kickboxing. Besides Lumpini stadium, there's also Rajadamnern stadium. Those are the big two of muay Thai with their own titles. Basically anyone who wants to call themselves an authentic world champion in that sport has to win a belt from one of those two at some point.

That's probably more information than anyone wanted on this.

[gilgamesh]

Haven't been on here in a long time but this post caught my eye, mainly because I wrote an article on it for Ring about a million years ago. The one main name among male fighters who I didn't see mentioned would be James Warring, who won a kickboxing title and a world cruiserweight boxing title. I think there was another Thai, besides Samart, who won in both back in the early 1970s but can't recall his name. There may be some others - possibly Khaosai Galaxy - who won in both, though Thais like to differentiate their muay Thai from kickboxing.

Among females, the big one is Lucia Rijker, who was far and away the best female kickboxer of all time and some would argue the best female boxer ever. I believe Graciela Casillas also won "world titles" in kickboxing and boxing.

I put "world titles" in quotes because kickboxing is the one sport that's organizationally even more messed up than boxing. As Gilgamesh pointed out, it varies around the world with about a million groups claiming to have world champions. In the 1970s and early 1980s the 2 big kickboxing organizations were the PKA (the one that didn't allow leg kicks) and WKA. After that the ISKA became big and K-1 came along, though they never really had world champions in the classic sense. Instead they had a tournament every year to crown a new champion. Currently the Glory organization is the big promotion and being champion of that is as close as you'd get to being a world champion. There is also WAKO which is primarily an amateur organization. Someone had mentioned Klitschko as being a champion in both but I think his kickboxing title was in WAKO.

Like I said, Thai boxing likes to differentiate themselves from kickboxing. Besides Lumpini stadium, there's also Rajadamnern stadium. Those are the big two of muay Thai with their own titles. Basically anyone who wants to call themselves an authentic world champion in that sport has to win a belt from one of those two at some point.

That's probably more information than anyone wanted on this.

Now at all. To be honest I wish somebody would write a book about Kickboxing as an organized sport. Information on it is so hard to find, it'd take a hellacious effort, but it'd be great to see a book on Kickboxing as an organized sport written. I don't think there is one.

You could make several books out of it like you say. The PKA, ISKA, K-1 Tourney's and obviously the incredible Muay Thai legacy could all be volumes in and of themselves. I just wish somebody would undertake this. Most every book on Kickboxing is about technique, and basically learning how to fight. That's all well and good, but I can't believe there's virtually no offering on the actual history of the sport.

Probably because as you say the history is so...loosely organized to put it kindly.

[mjaco]

There's probably not enough general interest to make a book on the history of kickboxing worthwhile for any professional writer to bother with. But gilgamesh's last post inspired me to at least write up a brief article on the history of kickboxing and muay Thai. It's a little long to post here but it's now up on my website. I don't know what the protocol is on this board so I don't want want to violate any rules by posting a link unless someone tells me it's okay. But if anyone is interested, they can send me a PM for the link.

[Hamidmalek]

Hamid reza malek mohammadi

[Onetimeonly]

Muangsurin

[Perseus]

Muangsurin

Nice find

https://www.asianboxing.info/saensak-muangsurin.html

Muay Thai champ and WBC champ in the 1970s

[Onetimeonly]

I remember him from when I was a kid.

[Perseus]

Seems like there are not as many as I would have guessed.

Boxing/kickboxing
Vitali Klitschko
Sam Soliman
Troy Dorsey
James Warring
Chris Algieri
Yoshiki Takei
Lucia Rijker
Graciela Casillas

Muay Thai/boxing
Sot Chitlada
Samart Payakaroon
Saensak Muangsurin
Amnat Ruenroeng
Thamanoon Niyontrong

[margaret thatcher]

Problem is that a lot of the boxers/kickboxers only did amateur kickboxing

I think Povetkin, Marco Huck, Caleb Plant , and George Groves won amateur kickboxing 'world' titles---defo Pov and Huck did. Lipinets may have won pro world titles in both I think.

[Perseus]

Lipinets wiki says he won a WAKO world full contact championship.
It doesn't say when and I don't know if it was professional or amateur.
I know WAKO governs a lot of amateur kickboxing events, not sure about professional.

The others you mentioned all won amateur kickboxing championships when they were young.
Povetkin did win a European pro kickboxing title.

[Richard Mia]

Professional titles in both. A few Thais have won boxing and Muay Thai. Listed in the following

Boxing/kickboxing
James Warring
Chris Algieri
Lucia Rijker
Vitali Klitschko
Sam Soliman
Troy Dorsey


Muay Thai/boxing
Samart Payakaroon
Saensak Muangsurin
Sot Chitlada

Here are the record you can check it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Kickboxing_Network
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... _champions

[Jan]

Can anybody say how good vitali klitschko was as a kickboxer? did he win an important title?

[gilgamesh]

Can anybody say how good vitali klitschko was as a kickboxer? did he win an important title?

When I've seen him Kickboxing he had headgear on. So no he didn't win an important title.

I would think he was decent at it. Surely a better boxer though.

[Perseus]

Can anybody say how good vitali klitschko was as a kickboxer? did he win an important title?

Wiki says his kickboxing record was 34-2.
Vitali won two amateur world titles and four as a professional. He won the ISKA world super heavyweight championship in 1994.

[edsnowden]

Holly Holm?

Mark Potter?

Tyson Fury is training MMA.

[Perseus]

Holly Holm?

Mark Potter?

Tyson Fury is training MMA.

To my knowledge Holly did not win a world title as a professional kickboxer.
I believe she is the only person to win world titles in boxing and MMA.

Mark Potter didn't win a world title in boxing.

[edsnowden]

Can anybody say how good vitali klitschko was as a kickboxer? did he win an important title?

Wiki says his kickboxing record was 34-2.
Vitali won two amateur world titles and four as a professional. He won the ISKA world super heavyweight championship in 1994.

I saw a video of Vitali kickboxing and he looked nasty.

Kicks with high level boxing. 6'7".......