Through the 1970s, the PKA was the largest and most successful professional kickboxing organization in the United States and in the UK and much of 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.

[3][4] The original design of the PKA logo is a silhouette of Bill "Superfoot" Wallace performing a roundhouse kick.

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.

[3] Additionally, Vernon "Thunder Kick" Mason would become US PKA's first bantamweight champion after winning via a KO victory over Sonny Onowa.

Joe Corley joined the PKA in 1977 and together with Glenn Keeney, 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 nine years.

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.

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.

"The exciting striking aspect of kickboxing gives fans the elements of the sport they most want to watch – punching and kicking."