JCVD mentioned people like Bill Wallace who had some of the best kicks ever... It's an old Karate/Kickboxing style that was very popular in the 80s but most pro kickboxers agree that the reason you rarely see that today is because everyone fought the same back then which is often referred to as "Flashy kicks and sloppy boxing" Then the 150 lb Muay thai guys came to America and changed striking forever and pretty much entirely killed that style apart from a few fighters who become succesful at it like Raymond Daniels and Wonderboy but even Daniels was outstruck and headkick KOed by Valtellini and beaten twice by Holzken. That style can be succesful but it takes a special person, Wonderboy has also lost to Matt Brown and has his toughest fight ahead of him in Rory. Even with Muay Thai and Dutch style kickboxing/thai style in MMA you're not seeing the highest level simply due to the fact they have so many other areas to concentrate on you can't dedicate yourself to one discipline without hindering the others, where specialists have the advantage. There's no doubt it will improve in 5 years like it has in the previous 5 but you will never see that ultimate specialist level. If TMA wants to truly make that big comeback like from the 80s they need more than a few scattered individuals here and there who have been successful. An old legendary Thai fighter who was retired walked into the Karate World championships and won it 2 year in a row. Even the old matchups from the 80s when the traditional guys had huge weight advantages. There's actually a good old article Black Belt magazine by Bill superfoot Wallace said Muay thai was better but it was too hard on the body and longevitity of fighters would kill the sport off. The status of high level kickboxing of Muay thai and dutch kickboxing/thai with all the legends and current champions from Van Roosmalen to Sittichai to Petrosyan to Verhoeven to Holzken and the list goes on and on. I love to watch that style of kicking but unfortunately it has a very big mountain to climb if it ever wants to regain it's popularity that it had in the past.