WHAT DO WE ACTUALLY WATCH DURING A KICKBOXING MATCH?

The lights dim, a small silence, and then the music begins. The audience starts cheering and at the moment that the fighter comes out from behind the curtains, the spotlights spring to life. This image is familiar to everyone who has ever watched a kickboxing match on television. The fighters walk to the ring amid the roar of the crowd, the referee briefly repeats the rules, and the statistics are displayed on television. And then the match begins.

But what are we actually looking at? How does the scoring system work and what is a Technical Knockout (TKO) anyway? To understand this, I'll explain in this blog what a match consists of and how judging works.

To get started, we have several classifications in kickboxing. These classifications all have separate rules and the rounds last, depending on the class, longer or shorter. For example, in youth matches, hitting the head is not allowed and the rounds last one minute. There are a total of five classes in kickboxing:

• J - Match (Youth Match)
• N - Match (Novice Match)
• C - Match
• B - Match
• A - Match

If you begin as an adult with a match, you start with a novice match. To move from a novice match to C-class, you must win 3 matches. And to move from C-class to B-class, you have to win 6 matches, and so on. But today we will be discussing professional kickboxing matches.

A professional kickboxing match can consist of three or five rounds of 3 minutes each. For regular matches, this is usually three, while in title fights, it often goes to five rounds. A fight can be won in three ways:

1. KO (Knockout); this is when a fighter goes down in the fight and after a ten count is unable to get back up and continue fighting.
2. TKO (Technical Knockout); this is when the referee, trainer, or the fighter themselves has decided they can no longer continue fighting.
3. Points; after the match, the fighter with the most points wins.

And then the points. Each judge can award 2x 10 points. This happens in a tied round, both fighters receive ten points. If one of the two has won but did not dominate his opponent in the round, then a 10-9 score will apply. For every time a fighter goes to the ground and receives a count, one point is deducted. Thus, the score after 1 knockdown would be 10-8, and after a second knockdown, the score would be 10-7.

Of course, there are also things that are not allowed or things for which you do not receive points in a kickboxing match. For instance, you do not get points for kicking or hitting the opponent's guard, and if you do something that is not allowed, it can even lead to a point deduction.

Below you will see the most common fouls:

1. Biting, eye gouging, spitting, or headbutting
2. Wrestling, arm locks, or similar techniques
3. Deliberately falling on the opponent
4. Holding the ropes for any reason
5. Swearing and insulting during the match
6. Kicking or punching the opponent after the referee's stop signal
7. Deliberately attacking from the back

If these fouls are observed, a point deduction may be imposed as a penalty, or the fighter may even be disqualified. This way, a score of 8-7 is also possible. At the end of the match, the points gathered in the rounds are added together and the winner is determined.

Come kickbox with me sometime!