“Rabbit Punch”. I know because I looked it up fairly recently when making a City of Heroes character, a melee fighter named Rabbit Punch who is a rabbit-girl who, well, punches people a lot. 
I’ve never heard of the term “rabbit punch”. I don’t know what answer I’d have given to the question. Just some random animal I suppose. Dog?
I’ve heard of a rabbit punch and know what it is. I would have answered donkey, though because … well, no good reason. Donkey punch is just set as my default term for that action.
I contend, and have right here on the Dope, that the reason the sex term is “donkey punch” is because “donkey” is a naturally degrading modifier (and a donkey punch is certainly a degrading act) for just about any noun. Except cheese. donkey cheese is alright in my book.
Rabbit punch: back of the neck.
Donkey punch: back of the head.
Never heard of a donkey punch, and I’ve been following boxing since the 60s. Rabbit punch almost always refers to a blow to the back of the neck or head, although sometimes it also refers to a punch to the kidneys in a clinch.
Donkey punch isn’t a boxing term. Kidney punches should be called kidney punches, but the commentators do say that sometimes. The etymology may refer to the back of the neck, but in boxing it applies to the back of the head as well.
(I’m sure you know this stuff if you’re a boxing fan, just putting it out there for the others)
So back to the donkey punch - Where do you hit a donkey to kill it?
I’ve been punching my donkey all day and it ain’t dead yet.
Rabbit Punch = back of the neck
Donkey Punch = throat
Why, oh why would you punch someone in the throat? Always seemed mean as hell to me and I never saw anyone punched in the throat but by golly we had a name for it.
“No rabbit punches. No kidney punches. No low blows. I wanna see a nice clean fight.”
Referee at the beginning of the majority of boxing matches.
The question is: Does a donkey punch actually work like its supposed to? Any Dopers want to volunteer answers if they’ve tested it out themselves?
It’s good to know I’m not the only one who thought that a rabbit punch was a short sharp blow to the kidneys.
I went hunting for it and there are quite a few sites which note that the kidney punch is also known as a rabbit punch.
As to the OP, my initial answer would have also been ‘donkey’. But in my defence, I thought a rabbit punch meant to the kidneys.
Cause it frigging hurts? 
So says the guy that copped a paintball in the throat at point blank range despite having a full face mask on.
That’s what I thought it was too. I’ve never heard of a rabbit punch as being to the neck or the head. I’ve only heard it as a kidney shot.
Put me in the perv donkey column as well.
Never heard of donkey punch.
Rabbit punch being one to the back of the neck is what it has meant in my experience.
My dad’s advice if I ever got in a fight:
“Punch them in the throat, then run like hell.”
Never actually put it into practice myself.
So it’s not a monkey punch, then?
It’s a generational thing.
Originally, back around the early 20th Century, a rabbit punch was a punch to the back of the neck, the way you killed rabbits.
When I was growing up in the 1940s-1960s, it was to the kidneys.
Donkey Punch is way modern.
I’ve never heard of either term.
Forced to answer, I would have said a Bertuzzi, just for the laughs
I’ve heard of a rabbit punch as being small rapid punches. Never heard that it was to any particular target, though.
I think the operative word is “commonly”.
For years and years the boxing referee used to give final instructions in the ring and what **drastic_quench ** quotes is what was heard over an over to anyone who ever watched boxing at all. It was a common instruction and almost everyone had heard it. Nowadays, the referee usually says something like “You know the rules, let’s have a clean fight, now touch gloves.” Rabbit punches are against the rules as are kidney punches because they both come from behind but they are actually different. It’s easy to see how the definition could morph.
So, going along with drastic_quench’s quote, I would agree that a punch to the neck is commonly known as a rabbit punch.