Dutch / Oriental Rules

'Oriental rules' is the name Dutch promoters gave to their working compromise, and it is arguably the most influential ruleset in the sport after K-1 itself — not because of the promotions that used it, but because of the style it produced. Low kicks are central. Knees are legal. The clinch is allowed for a moment, long enough to land, not long enough to grind. Elbows are out.

That combination is exactly what shaped Dutch kickboxing. Because the clinch cannot be used to rest or stall, and because leg kicks score, the optimal strategy became sustained boxing combinations that finish on a low kick — the pattern that Mejiro Gym, Chakuriki and later Golden Glory drilled into thousands of fighters. A Dutch fighter's default is not a single heavy weapon but a chain: hands to move the guard, then the leg kick underneath it.

The rules also explain a long-running stylistic argument. Under Thai stadium scoring, that same volume-punching approach is undervalued; under Dutch rules and their K-1 and GLORY descendants, it is the winning formula. Much of the history of Thailand-versus-Netherlands matchups is really a history of which rulebook the fight was contested under.