Not too long ago a UFC fighter was filmed in a street fight, IIRC. This guy was beating on a girl and the UFC fighter came to the girls aid. It was a few months ago, so my memory might be fuzzy.
There’s also the ‘story’ of Van Damme being laid out by the former hell’s angel guy.
The attacker is not going to be facing the boxer when the chain of events begin. The boxer will be standing at the urinal. The boxer will be taking a sip from his beer or laughing with a girl at the bar. The boxer will be playing Golden Tee.
In all of those scenarios, his back will be to the attacker who, if he is smart, will bash the boxer’s head into the wall, bar, or console. Even a stupid attacker would most likely crack him in the head from behind with a bottle or other weapon, or at the very least throw him in a choke hold from behind and bring him to the ground.
Taking a punch to the face or getting unexpectedly hit in the head with a beer bottle are two completely different things, let me assure you. 
It’s like this- if I were in a bar fight, I would certainly want the boxer on my side, but in a bar fighting situation during the initiation of force he will be at a disadvantage. (As would anybody)
Boxes also hit each other with gloved hands.
If a pro boxer gets in a decent head shot with an ungloved hand their opponent will hit the deck.
There are countless youtube clips of large bullies getting nailed with a single KO punch, mostly because a clean hit with a bare fist on the chin or temple pretty much guarantees a KO regardless of who you’re fighting.
The skill bit, as noted, is in avoiding the punches in the first place until you can get your shot in.
Well, too late to edit my post, but I decided to see if I could find anything about the exhibition on the Google. It turned out to be pretty easy, and there’s even a Wikipedia article on it
Not surprisingly, I got some stuff about it wrong.
It wasn’t during Ali’s exile, as I assumed; it was in 1976, when Ali was the reigning HW champ (and I should have known that, because I was in high school during Ali’s exile). It was 15 rounds, and apparently the rules severely handicapped Inoki, i.e. he was not allowed to do what you would expect a wrestler to do against a boxer, namely tackle or throw him.
I don’t think that changes the conclusion of my post — even with a very good boxer, and even in conditions where he has room to move and is facing his opponent, he may not be able to land a blow.
i think a lot of good points have been touched on, but i’ll try to still give my 2 cents (and probably consolidate a lot of other people’s points)
a fight like this really comes down to: does the big guy know the little guy is a boxer? if he doesn’t, and approaches the fight like it’s business as usual? he’s going to wake up with a broken jaw - or not wake up at all. there’s no question about that.
if the big guy KNOWS it’s pacqiao, well he probably wouldn’t pick the fight either. it’s the paq man. but, if he’s insistent on fighting, he would either sneak a first punch for a home run (when paq isn’t looking) or try to grapple. if he connects on the punch? he wins. if he doesn’t? he’s dead. if he’s grappling? if he’s in shape, he can potentially choke the boxer out. if he’s not? paq is going to wait until the guy tires himself out, get up, and then stomp on this guy.
so really there’s only 2 ways the big guy can win - sneak in that first punch, or he grabs a pool cue. otherwise? this guy is looking at broken bones, a concussion, and just an overall ass-kicking.
It’s not this video is it? That’s from a few years ago, and it’s not a UFC fighter (but another trained martial artist), but it otherwise fits the description.
I know of at least one situation in which a blow with a bottle to the back of the head in a bar resulted in death. Are there that many people out there willing to risk committing homicide?
The other thing that they can do is take a punch. Most people don’t really know how to deal with getting hurt - they get scared, they panic, they freeze. For a boxer, serious pain is just an ordinary part of the job. Unless the bar fighter inflicts enough damage, quickly, to literally disable the boxer, the drunken lout will find the boxer just shrugging off his blows.
Psst…
You may wanna take a look at the records of Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Leonard…
You don’t work in criminal defense, do you?
(I don’t either, but from friends I have that do, it’s surprising just how many of their clients are stupid and unwilling to consider the consequences of their actions.)
As to the OP, agree that there have been great points raised in the thread and my money is on the pro boxer in the fight. There was a thread in the Game Room recently about just how much better a professional athlete is at their sport than even a talented, practiced amateur. Can’t find the thread at the moment, but I imagine the same effect and examples would carry over to the sport of boxing/MMA.
However, a historical example not yet brought up is the death of Arturo Gatti. Depending on who is telling the story, his wife either strangled him with her purse strap—presumably while he was passed out, he strangled himself with her purse, or whomever left the additional bruises on him also strangled him. Weird case, and we’ll probably never hear the full truth of it.
Not sure if it was mentioned, but Mitch Green was also a professional heavyweight boxer, albeit not a very good one, when he and Tyson fought outside the clothing store in NYC. Probably why Green was able to walk away afterwards…
Has anyone seen the show called “Bully Beatdown?” It’s some cable show (I don’t remember the network, maybe Spike?) which involves neighborhood “bullies” being challenged to matches with professional MMA fighters. This isn’t street fighting, but it gives you an idea of the difference in skill and ability between a professional fighter and an untrained brawler. A lot of the “bullies” are musclehead, weightlifter types, and some are pretty big. The matches are structured as two rounds. In the first round, no striking is allowed, and the MMA fighter is going for submission holds. In this round, the amateur can sometimes squirm around on the ground and avoid getting put into holds (though it’s rare that they don’t get submitted at all). In the second round, once striking is allowed, it’s no contest. The pros beat their asses in seconds. The amateurs rarely even land a punch, and when they do, the pros don’t even feel them.
I’m not saying an untrained brawler could never beat a trained professional fighter, but by and large, my money is going to be on the trained fighter every time.
You’ve never seen him fight, so how can you say that? I have seen him fight, and I’m a trained fighter, and he scared the hell out of me.
A real street fighter is someone who gets in a lot of street fights, and who is mean enough and talented enough to win most of them. They’re guys with experience in street fighting. But mostly, they’re tough and mean. Hitting them doesn’t startle or frighten them, it makes them angry. They don’t fight ‘fair’. They don’t face off with you and dance around looking to trade punches - they push you over a chair without warning then kick you in the face while you’re on the ground.
Most people have never seen a real street fight, let alone been in one. They may have had schoolyard fights in grade school, and maybe been in some shoving matches that ended when someone got punched and the fun went out of it. I’ve seen several people sent to the hospital from bar fights. I saw one person get his back broken and turned into a paraplegic.
Here’s the difference between a ‘real’ street fighter and someone who’s just mad and wants to fight you: The guy who’s mad will ask you to get out your car, then he’ll push you around and stick his face in yours and goad you into fighting. The real street fighter will tell you to get out of the car, and then while you’re getting out he’ll kick the door into your head or foot and start punching you in the face.
A trained boxer will do fine against an untrained, unprepared guy who’s not really a fighter but who is either enraged enough or goaded on enough to get into a fight with him. A trained boxer may or may not do well in a real street fight, because if he’s up against a real streetfighter he’s probably not going to get a chance to even swing at him.
If I was going to rank a single trait as being most likely to be decisive in determining a street fight, it would be ‘meanness’. Most people are civilized, and are constrained by that. Even a boxer who’s used to being punched in the ring may lose his focus when he’s just chatting with a girl and suddenly gets punched in the side of the head and finds himself on the ground with a screaming, spitting maniac flailing on him. It’s disconcerting, to say the least.
The second most single thing determining a real bar fight is: whoever throws the first punch. Getting sucker punched will startle anyone, and if the opponent is really mean, that momentary startle is all it will take to give him time to swarm all over you.
As for boxers who have beat up street fighters on video or whatever, bear in mind that a lot of people who go into professional boxing or serious martial arts are also tough street fighters with plenty of experience. In that case, the boxing just makes them tougher and harder hitting. They would definitely have an advantage.
No, I’m not in criminal defense. But I am a journalist and a lawyer and I have spent time as a crime reporter and I count among my acquaintances several cops, prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys, and judges.
Fighting in a ring, regardless of the rules involved, is nothing like many street fights. Just the fact that the two opponents are in a ring, mentally engaged and alert, makes all the difference in the world. There’s no chance of a guy’s buddy kicking you in the head while you’re trying for a submission hold, there’s no furniture to trip you up, there are no weapons to worry about, and you know that the refs aren’t going to let you be killed. That changes the ‘mental game’ completely.
Take that same trained fighter, put him on a bar stool with a couple of beers in him, and start the fight with him getting sucker punched. Then let’s see who wins. The big difference from that point on is whether his assailant is stupid enough to let him recover and prepare himself for the next attack. If he does, then I’ll vote for the MMA guy. If not, well, it’ll be interesting.
You haven’t been in a bar fight have ya? 
Generally, rational thought is not something that comes in to the equation. Not to mention the bottle structure- I prefer a nice Budweiser, MGD, or Corona bottle over the more sturdy Anchor Steam, Heineken, or Guinness when it comes to getting whacked in the head.
I’ll take the trained fighter every time. Even a sucker punch isn’t going to affect them that much, and they have conditioned reflexes that would let them sense it coming anyway. Don’t be so sure it could even get landed.
If the attacker does not know he is a fighter, possibly. I doubt after 3 pints his reflexes are going to be that of a cat.
If the attacker does know he is a fighter, he is going to bring everything he can in the way of weapons and surprise to gain the advantage. in a crowded bar, there is no way the fighter would “sense” anything.
What kind of bars are you hanging out in, that people are attacking strangers from behind for no reason?
I’m well aware of them. The topic is boxer vs. regular guy, not all-time greats against regular guy.
But thanks for the snark.
Or its cousin, dirtiness. A boxer may not think to defend himself against getting kicked in the nuts.
And whenever I watch a UFC fight, where the Gracies or whomever spend most of their time on their back, going for submissions, all I can think is that in the real world, their opponent’s pal would come over and kick them in the head.