Lewis left behind his own system of martial arts teaching, called the Joe Lewis American Karate Systems which focuses on full-contact fighting. Due to his role in developing and promoting the sport's first event in the American continent, Joe Lewis is considered to be the "Father of Kickboxing" in the western world, and he's also been called "the man who brought us Full Contact Karate." Black Belt Magazine describes his process of solo training in boxing and combining those techniques with his Karate techniques as "the result is the martial sport now known as Kickboxing." His efforts in these fields eventually resulted in the Mixed martial arts competition of today.