Kash Gill

Kash "The Flash" Gill is a retired British professional kickboxer who is a former four-times world champion.^[1]

Gill became a world champion in kickboxing at the age of 21.^[2] He formally retired from fighting in 2002. In 1991, he won the World Kickboxing Association (WKA) light middleweight and super welterweight full contact titles. The following year he won the WKA middleweight championship. He was the International Sport Karate Association freestyle champion of 1993.

Standing tall at 6 ft 3", Kash has an impressive line-up of British, European and World titles under his belt. He is the first UK Asian to be a world champion in a contact sport and became four times World Kickboxing Champion, an achievement that has never been beaten.

Biography

Born in 1966 and bought up in inner city Handsworth, Kash had a tough upbringing. His mother died when he was only nine, leaving his father working 18-hour days as a factory worker to support him, his sister and four brothers. Always a sporty child, Kash discovered kickboxing at the age of 14 when he saw a demo in a local park went down for a trial session and fell in love with the sport which was to become his life.

Gill's natural speed and athletic ability as well as his flashy showmanship soon earned him the nickname ‘The Flash’. By 1984, having earned his black belt, Gill at the age of 18, had entered and won his first competition in a three-round contest in full-contact karate.

The list of world kickboxing titles that Kash picked up and added to his collection over the next few years was impressive and his rise to fame gathered impetus in 1986 when he blasted his way to a gold medal at the World PKA Amateur Full Contact Championships. He scaled new heights in his career, collecting his first Professional world title, the WKA Junior Middleweight in 1991 when he also won the World full contact Karate championships. In the two consecutive years following, he went on to win the WKA World Middleweight kickboxing title and the ISKA World Light Middleweight title. Despite his success in the ring, Kash still has his feet firmly planted on the ground. The man behind the world champion is an extremely likeable one and he is a sensational coach. Do not let the Flash stage persona fool you, Kash is a charismatic man that cares about his community and the people in it – he is a true peoples champion and a positive role model. He is currently working with local schools to promote the importance of health and fitness and is hugely involved in fundraising and working with local charities that help disadvantaged youths in the area where he grew up.

In 2008 Kash achieved his lifelong dream and opened his own gym with the aim of uniting people from all communities in a love of fitness and sport. His gym in Icknield Port Road, Edgbaston includes a boxing ring, plenty of floor space, punch bags, showers and a sauna and offers a variety of classes to suit all ages and abilities.

Kash is currently working with Author Shirley Thompson on his autobiography, due for release in July 2012, which looks at the life of Kash ‘The Flash’ Gill, not just as a fighter but as a young kid from a big family, growing up in inner city Birmingham.

Comeback

In December 2011, Kash Gill fought former world kickboxing champion Don "The Dragon" Wilson in a mixed martial arts cage match in Kazakhstan. The bout was originally billed as an exhibition, but Wilson, 57, was awarded the decision at the end of the match.

See also

• List of male kickboxers
• Kickboxing

References

External links

• Official website
• Gym website