Professional Karate Association

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.

History
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). Additionally, Vernon Mason (also called Vernon "Thunder Kick Mason") would become US PKA's first bantamweight champion after knocking out Sonny Onowa.



Joe Corley joined the PKA in 1977 and together with Glenn Keeney (RIP), Jerry Piddington, John Therien in Canada, George Sfetas in England and many others in the US organized the committees that would control the sport of full contact karate for the next 9 years. 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. and producing more than 1,000 hours of television content.

The PKA signed many fighters to exclusive contracts in order to build its brand in the sport. Some fighters chose to go to other competing organizations, but the PKA was the most well-known. The PKA sanctioned fights exclusively with what has become known as "full contact rules" which permit kicks only above the waist as opposed to the "international rules" advocated by other organizations. In 1989 Joe Corley gained the rights to PKA in an out-of-court settlement ending a 3-year dispute with his PKA partners. The PKA has since operated as a promotion company.

The PKA hosted fights with Showtime through the 90s and held its first pay-per-view event with Showtime featuring Jean Yves Theriault vs Rick Roufus, Dennis Alexio vs Dick Kimber and Paul Vizzio vs Juan Torres, but went dormant shortly thereafter. PKA President Joe Corley said in a 2022 interview in the newly published PKA Worldwide magazine that "an inadvertent series of decisions by a broadcast executive wreaked unparalleled havoc on the momentum we had built for 20 years, and quite frankly, I had to take a hiatus following the 2 decades of gruelling--yet exciting and inspiring- television and promotion work. I put my personal energy into our Joe Corley American Karate studios in Atlanta, training our instructors how to operate professional studios as the interest in Martial Arts continued to explode."

PKA Hall of Fame


Most notable historical legacy fighters of the PKA include:
 * Bill "Superfoot" Wallace
 * Joe Lewis
 * Benny "the Jet" Urquidez
 * "The Iceman" Jean-Yves Thériault
 * Dennis "the Terminator" Alexio
 * Rick "the Jet" Roufus
 * Jerry Trimble
 * Jeff Smith

Re-launch of modern PKA
In March, 2022, PKA CEO Joe Corley announced the re-launch of PKA as PKA Worldwide. As of October 31, 2022, PKA Worldwide had named members of its PKA Worldwide Leadership Team to include 3 Co-Presidents led by Jeff Smith. Joe Corley announced that PKA Worldwide was undertaking its 'HUNT FOR THE GREATEST STRIKERS ON THE PLANET', and as of June 1, 2024 has held auditions in New York, Fort Worth, Redlands, California, Arlington, Texas South Hill, Washington, Vitoria Brazil and Johannesburg, South Africa. As of June, 2024 PKA Worldwide has a Global Leadership team in place that includes Robert Gutkowski as Vice Chairman / President of the Broadcast Division and Jeff Smith as President of Sports Operations. Carlos Silva has been named PKA Director for Latin America, Joe Viljoen named PKA Director for Africa and Amir Mosadegh is the PKA Director for Asia.

PKA CEO Joe Corley said "Many of the analysts of the Combat Sports on television have recognized that the Striking Techniques in kickboxing and in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) are most appreciated by the sports' fans. The remarkable growth of MMA and other combat sports for the past 20 years has convinced us that now is the perfect time to re-introduce professional kickboxing to fill a niche in the combat sports landscape," said Corley. "The exciting striking aspect of kickboxing gives fans the elements of the sport they most want to watch – punching and kicking."

Following on from this, the new motto and mantra of the PKA is "Punch. Kick. Repeat." As Joe Corley PKA CEO said "It's what our fighters do best."

PKA Worldwide is set to launch rebranded PKA Kickboxing events in 2024, and  all the new fights will take place in a "Stikers Cage" as opposed to a traditional ring. PKA Worldwide has been scouting global venues and recruiting athletes with now with more than 50 new athletes already on the roster, they are continuing to scout new and fresh talent. PKA Worldwide is looking to introduce the iconic brand of PKA Kickboxing to Generation X with the 2 years of scouting complete the new cage design is final, venue deals have been agreed and broadcast and streaming agreements are in place.



PKA Worldwide Leadership Team
 * Joe Corley - CEO Chief Executive Officer
 * Robert Gutkowski - Vice Chairman, President, Broadcast Division
 * Jeff Smith - Co-President, Sports Operations
 * James Thomas II - Co-President, Business Affairs
 * Greg Suther - Director of PKA Associated Schools
 * Bill Wallace - PKA International Ambassador
 * Daisy Lang - Global Ambassador, Women Fighters
 * Amir Mosadegh - Director, PKA Asia
 * Joe Viljoen - Director, PKA Africa
 * Carlos Silva - Director, PKA South America
 * Dan Stell - Director of Officials, Training & Certification
 * Jamie Cashion - Event Coordinator Director
 * Derrick Huff - CCO Chief Creative Officer