Starting my own kickboxing promotion...need ideas!

Wado Heretic · Green Belt

1. I would say that if your talent pool is Muay Thai based, then go by the old adage of if it isn’t broken then don’t fix it. I would employ straight Muay Thai rules if that is the case, though I would suggest looking into what the local commissions position is on some techniques; some places can be weird about unprotected elbow strikes.

2. To be fair, if you can save money in places, then save money in places. The cage might not necessarily be a bad thing, though I am a ring advocate for kick-boxing, but you will have to justify the use of the cage otherwise it does just look like cost cutting. For example, it might be worth considering knock-down rules which justify the padded flooring of cages; not allowing sweeps or throws seems rather unusual to a spectator if the floor is padded. This might lead to some clinch heavy fighting though, so might need to consider rules to prevent over reliance on locking up to get the sweep or throw. You will also have to take into account how colliding with the cage wall differs from colliding with the ropes; should probably enact a restart rule where the fighters are moved to the centre if they end up locked against the cage wall for more then 5 seconds or so.

3. I would suggest some closed door preliminaries to find some good contestants for the live shows. It would be ideal to let everyone who volunteers have a go on the live stage, but you will need the best you can get to put on a good show. If you could get an amateur champion, and a former pro that is still training but no longer professional; it would help to establish a favourite going into your initial event, creates it’s own under-dog story, and a “gate-keeper” of sorts never hurts and adds some prestige. Also, try to set up first matches based on strengths you have observed in the preliminaries, rather than based on fighters’ records. You will want to ensure all the opening matches are between people who will give each other a run for their money. Nothing worse than opening matches where the out come is a foregone conclusion in the opening seconds.

In terms of general rules; I will admit I have always wondered what a kick-boxing match with lighter MMA like gloves would be like. Ironically, I found that my point fighting experience was more relevant to fighting with out gloves than my kick-boxing experience; when it came to knockdown karate and shoot-fighting. Some of the defensive tactics you can get away with when wearing boxing gloves just do not exist when you take the gloves away. Not advocating bare-knuckle kick-boxing, but might be an angle to explore. Issue would be finding gloves which do not exaggerate the hand size too much, but provide enough protection to the hands during a kick-boxing match. I am not sure conventional MMA gloves would be up to the task.

Speaking of MMA, if you have a cage to use; it might be an idea to host a mixed card with some MMA matches between the Kick-boxing. Might draw a larger crowd, and would most readily justify the use of a cage; you will just need to have a good announcement team and referees who are on the ball.
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R. Keith Williams

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