A friend and I were having a debate in the pub tonight regarding which discipline in combat would be the most effective should two “experts” come face to face in the street. It was my belief that a professional boxer would have more of the “street-fighting” mentality and would prosper over one of the martial arts such as Ju-Jitsu and Taekwon Do in a straight fight. So my question is, given a professional in each discipline of combat which would be the most effective in an “anything-goes” fight, would the speed and technique of a black belt overcome the raw power of a boxer or would it be negated by the hitting power of the boxer.
To give an example, Bruce Lee vs. Lennox Lewis, who is your money on?
A good grappler will almost always win in a one to one street fight. It is very hard to keep outside of grappling distance and when the fight goes to the floor the best grappler will win.
Well if you allow guns in the scenario
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I’d say it really depends on a lot of factors. Martial arts focusing on grappling (whether we are talking traditional Greco-Roman wrestling or Judo) rely on certain “parameters” that you wouldn’t find in a street fight. It’s very difficult if someone is swinging at you to “grapple” him in a manner that will completely immobilize him. Professional boxers of the heavyweight division tend to be immensely strong, even if you get in close and they can only get in short punches they’d probably knock out your average martial artist easily because the punching power of a heavyweight boxer is amazing and not to be underestimated.
But there are situations where I can see a grappler coming out ahead, but if the boxer isn’t constrained by boxing rules or gloves then he has a huge natural advantage because he is trained to take blows and does so regularly, and also has an amazingly strong punch surpassing what you would find from almost anyone who isn’t a professional boxer.
Anyways, I think there are some martial artists that can beat up some boxers. I think natural ability and power go a long way in situations like this. Certain martial arts are too devoted to forms/katas and IMO don’t offer very practical means for taking out an opponent. While some martial arts, like Kyokushin for example are extremely practical methods of unarmed combat.
Bruce versus Lennox Lewis wouldn’t even be a contest. Bruce would break both of Lennox’s kneecaps in the first second.
Basically, I think this debate is pretty moot. Any person who is trained how to and is willing to unhesitatingly do grevious harm to their opponent (I mean break knees and literally gouge out eyeballs), is going to win most of the time. It also means you’ve got to train these moves against a grappler or a boxer.
I’d take even money on that. The weight difference is huge, and Lewis is a great fighter.
As for breaking kneecaps, it’s not as easy as you might think. In fact. incapacitating anyone with one blow is extremely difficult, and if you don’t, you’ve got 245 pounds of Lennox Lewis badness all over you.
I say this as a long time practitioner of Goju-Ryu Karate. The answer to the question in the OP is, “Whoever is biggest and meanest”. That’s not to say there aren’t differences between the styles, with some being much more effective than others. Still the difference isn’t enough to overcome sheer physical ability, strength, weight, and meanness. Lennox Lewis is a superb athlete. He trains to hit and be hit every day of his life. Bruce Lee was 140 lbs, and while he always stayed in condition and was a giften martial artist, he wasn’t the physical specimen that Lewis is.
Anyway, if I had to choose to be trained in one martial art for a future fight against an assailant of unknown size and training, it’d no doubt be one of the grappling arts.
One thing to remember about boxing is that every boxer has what is referred to as a “puncher’s chance.”
This concept was explained to me by a buddy when I posed him the question from a thread on these boards: “What is the greatest upset in sports history?” He picked the Miracle on Ice, as did the plurality of posters. But some posters mentioned Buster Douglas over Tyson.
When i brought that up to him, he said that since a boxer always has a puncher’s chance, literally any boxer can win any fight.
There may be many disciplines that have the edge over boxing, but there isn’t a single one that could be confident of victory for this sole reason. And you can be sure that nobody in their right mind would want to fight a boxer.