The Greatest Savate Fighters of All Time

A short history of Savate

Savate began as street fighting in France, where disputes were settled with kicks, punches and sticks. Sailors in Marseille practised a kicking game called chausson, while in Paris the style was fought in heavy shoes; the name savate means "old shoe". In the 1820s Michel Casseux opened the first hall teaching a regulated version that banned headbutting, eye gouging and grappling.

Charles Lecour turned it into a sport. After watching an English boxing match in 1838, he combined boxing punches with savate kicks, brought boxing gloves into training and created what became known as French boxing. Joseph Charlemont codified its techniques in an 1877 treatise, and in 1899 his son Charles fought English boxer Jerry Driscoll in a bout that ended in a disputed stoppage and, according to the international federation's history, a conviction for both men for assault.

The federation calls the years around 1900 French boxing's golden age. Georges Carpentier was French savate champion in 1907 before his fame in English boxing, and French boxing appeared as a demonstration sport at the 1924 Paris Olympics. English boxing then eclipsed it, and Count Pierre Baruzy, an 11-time French champion, kept it alive through the lean decades.

A revival began in 1965 with the founding of France's Comité National de Boxe Française, and the first European championships were held in Paris in 1970. The international federation was founded on 23 March 1985 and took the name Fédération Internationale de Savate in 1999. It now runs world championships in savate assaut, savate combat and canne de combat, and in 2015 savate was added to France's inventory of intangible cultural heritage.

• ✦Kicks must land with the foot, in savate boots; shin and knee strikes are not allowed in competition.
• ✦Four kicks are allowed: fouetté (roundhouse), chassé (front or side), revers (hooking) and coup de pied bas (low kick).
• ✦Four punches are allowed: the jab, cross, hook and uppercut, thrown in boxing gloves.
• ✦Assaut rewards technique and control and penalizes excessive force; combat is full contact with little protective gear.
• ✦Glove colours, not belts, show a savate practitioner's level.