Why is kickboxing less popular then boxing?

[FightingSpirit18]

Just wondering why kickboxing isnt as popular as boxing?

[isshinryu5toforever]

If you're talking as far as TV time, then you're looking at pure economics. Budweiser doesn't sponsor a lot of kick boxing events. They also don't have a lot of multi-million dollar payouts in kickboxing. That is why it isn't in the spotlight as far as television goes.

[FightingSpirit18]

so kickboxing isnt popular because budweiser doesnt sponser the kickboxing events. why cant someone else sponser the events like miller or some other lucritive company? i just dont understand why boxing gets more coverage then kickboxing. i mean kickboxing is very fast paced and exciting. i recently just started kickboxing about 1 month ago and i was looking for some matches on tv to watch but never found any. kind of a bummer that you never see any.

[isshinryu5toforever]

Okay so we are talking about airtime. Kickboxing doesn't have anyone who has stood out as an interesting character. At least not to the general public. Boxing has had Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, John L. Sullivan, George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, the list goes on. These men have been in the public eye, they are the stuff that legends are made of. Kickboxing has been relatively humble. You don't see a Mike Tyson type personality in the kickboxing ring. You don't see Don King-type promoters in the kickboxing world either. The paydays aren't inornately massive either. You don't see the heavyweight champ fighting for $12 mil. Your signature is even from a movie about boxing. Boxing has taken the public's attention. They see two men standing toe to toe beating eachother with their fists. That is the American sport of boxing. If you can be a great prizefighter, you got it made. As put in Undisputed, "People love a guy that can fight, a guy that don't take no (poop)." If you know the story of Billy Con, you can see this. Con was a light heavy weight that fought Joe Louis. He almost beat him too. If you search online I bet you can find all the details. The point was that Billy Con took the world's attention, because a little Irishman almost knocked out the man with the worlds hardest right hand. People love a champion, and in the eyes of most Americans the man that can fight is boxing's heavy weight champ.

[FightingSpirit18]

so lets take out the tv time and now how popular is kickboxing? see i love kickboxing its such a great sport but i really dont like the fact that it is so unpopular among the masses. also is the sport getting more popular?(tv wise)

[italian_guy]

I think that another answer is:

 

because boxing has a long tradition, while kickboxing was born 30 years ago boxing was born in the late 800' and even earlier to some extent.

[isshinryu5toforever]

The modern form of sport kickboxing yes 30 years ago. Muay Thai is storied to have been around for 2,000 years. As for the popularity among the masses. I think it's popular enough, you just may not see a large number of people participate where you live. In NYC there are a bunch of people that go to NYSC and Crunch that do kickboxing. I know that back in Minneapolis there was a good group of people too. As far as TV airtime, I don't know. ESPN shows some once in a while. Some people have been talking about the conception of a Martial Arts Television Network. Maybe you should probe the powers that be and see what can happen.

[Topic]

Try to find a thai store around you or in the next towns over, they should be selling muay thai tapes of fights form thailand and lumpini stadium n ch 7 fights, that how i get my fights.

[SevenStar]

or you can check ebay.

[SevenStar]

The modern form of sport kickboxing yes 30 years ago. Muay Thai is storied to have been around for 2,000 years.

 

technically, muay thai has only been around shince the 1920's. other muay - muay boran, muay chaad cheurk, mae mai, muay lon lon, etc. were the predecessors of muay thai. These are the predecessors of muay thai, often referred to as ancient muay thai.