Is there a big difference between kickboxing and Thai Boxing?

Question

Is there a big difference between kickboxing and Thai Boxing?

Answer 1

not really.. in ameriica the bigger difference is muay thai uses elbows,knees,hands, and feet while kickboxing is only hands and feet

Answer 2

muay thai is NOT kickboxing, thats just the easiest way to describe it so westerners know what the heck is going on.

muay thai is a traditional fighting/sport art from thailand, sometimes called the science of 8 limbs because unlike kickboxing (as its known now days) it includes elbow strikes and knees, as well as fists and feet. also, muay thai kicks with their shins. in a competition it is perfectly legal to knee to the face or ribs or legs. its legal to leg kick someone with your shins below the wasts (not groin) ..its legal to tear someones face open with elbows. they also allow a certain amount of clinching (they call it the plum) while standing. there are some so called "thai fights" that dont allow knees and elbows. but often you will hear "full thai rules" which is about as anything goes as you can get as far as stand up fighting is concerned in a sportive arena.

kickboxing is just basically boxing as a "delivery system" with karate or taekwondo kicks added. it was first called (i believe) full contact (karate) .

however i believe the fist person to actually coin the term kickboxing was bruce lee. he once referred to jeet kune do (before it was called jeet kune do) as chinese kickboxing...this was before full contact karate became called kickboxing. there is no clinching. no low kicks, no elbows.

muay thai is not a complete art. it is a smaller part of a larger are who's name escapes my memory right now. krabi krabong is/was the weapons portion of the art. muay thai was the striking portion. but from what i've heard there was much more to it than just those two.

Answer 3

well the rules are what really make it differ. in japan thai boxers compete alongside kickboxers. in thai boxing however they are allowed to use knees and elbows. that is really the main difference.