Professional Karate Association

Martial arts promotion company

The Professional Karate Association (PKA), later Professional Karate & Kickboxing Association, now—effective March 1, 2022 PKA Worldwide was originally a martial arts sanctioning organization, now transformed into a martial arts promotion company. Through the 1970s, the PKA was the major professional kickboxing organization in the United States and in Europe, featuring such fighters as Bill "Superfoot" Wallace, Joe Lewis, Benny "the Jet" Urquidez, The Iceman Jean Yves Thériault, Dennis "the Terminator" Alexio, Rick "the Jet" Roufus, Jerry Trimble and Jeff Smith. The original design of the PKA logo is a silhouette of Bill "Superfoot" Wallace performing a roundhouse kick. The PKA introduced Kickboxing to the world when it originated in the 1970s and was brought to prominence in September 1974, when the Professional Karate Association (PKA) held the first World Championships. American Kickboxing was first known as Full Contact Karate before becoming known or referred to as Kickboxing as it amalgamates Karate & Boxing and aspects of various other Martial Arts into one sport. The pro full contact version of karate is akin to boxing in that the fighters wear boxing gloves within a roped ring. Its resemblance to pure karate is that the fighters wear pads on their feet and must deliver a minimum of eight above the waist kicks in each two minute round.

Following the disintegration of the United States Kickboxing Association (USKA) in 1972, the Professional Karate Association was formed in 1974 by Don and Judy Quine in association with Mike Anderson, going on to champion Kickboxing to the world stage to major success. It was launched with the initial world championships in 1974 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, and was telecast on ABC's Wide World of Entertainment. The winners of the initial championship were Joe Lewis (heavyweight), Jeff Smith (light heavyweight), Bill "Superfoot" Wallace (middleweight), and Isiasis Duenas (lightweight). The PKA went on to have a long term relationship with ESPN that lasted until 1986, while also airing a series of fights on CBS under the watch of CBS Sports VP Barry Frank and on NBC via Sean McManus. The PKA was by far the most visible sanctioning body for what became better known as kickboxing in the United States, in 1982 sanctioning 43% of events worldwide.