About Billy Murray

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Pro-Kick was established at the end of 1990 by Billy Murray, Ireland's most successful ever full contact kickboxer. Murray's tale - of bullied school boy to world champion, trainer and owner of what is now a chain of franchised gyms - is so incredible as to be almost unbelievable. Billy began kick boxing after being attacked by a group of thugs as a school boy. He vowed never to let it happen to him again.

Setting about learning the martial arts as a means of self-defence Billy almost immediately showed the kind of gritty determination that would see him rise through the ranks to become a world beater. Progressing quickly through various disciplines - including Karate and Ju Jitsu - he found that full contact Kick boxing suited him best. His first fight was almost twenty years ago, his first world title (as an amateur) came in 1987. With the title came the confidence to turn professional.

Earlier, in 1986, he had also spotted a gap in the promotion and business side of his sport. He began to bring the cream of the world's martial artists to compete in Belfast. He even promoted one of his own title shots - a 1988 European clash against Dutchman Toni Habberland. By so doing, he started a trend within kickboxing of competitors switching easily between the inside and outside of the ring. By 1989 he was Professional World Champion - an honour he would hold at three different weight divisions for almost a decade.

He retired undefeated in 1997 but planned a final fight in his native Belfast on March 25 of 2000. Which was fantastic, just like the rest of his illustrious career, the winner to take it bout against Thai World Champion Chartsingh from Bangkok, was an explosive, incident packed thriller in front of a capacity audience of over 2500 people at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.

The event was also a sucsuss outside the ring by raising over £5000 for the Royal Victory hospital!

Billy will now devotes his time to being a coach to those at ProKick, a fight promoter and a role as one of the sports most well known global ambassadors on behalf of WKN (The World Kickboxing Network) and producing kickboxing programmes for SkySports and many TV networks around the World. It is ProKick, though, that takes the majority of his time.