How useful is boxing in street fighting ?

I remember watching a Karate tournament once, and they were basically sparring for points. No sense of power behind each strike. Essentially they would both dive in and beat each other's chests as rapidly as possible, or raise their leg and tap each other as many times as possible. And I was so disappointed because if anyone actually tried to fight like this in a real fight, they would do far worse than someone who had no training at all.

Not to knock karate, I think it can be quite a practical martial art, but I agree, points fighting or some other forms of sparring can actually make you far WORSE than any regular joe on the street.

 

A good friend of mine doesn't hit that hard in the ring not featherfisted but far from a power puncher. Anyway in street fights which he's had a lot of he hurts guys and drops them all the time. It all comes down to the advantage anyone with real sparring/fight experience has over people without it. The ability to take a punch and being conditioned not to just move your head back and go off balance is crucial. How many times do you see a street fight where the first punch ends it because as soon as a punch lands they get knocked out or fall over? Thats the biggest advantage a boxer has over people without experience IMO as well as the ability to throw more accurately etc.

Its useful but its no guarantee

 

Well, and trust me your STYLE as a boxer makes a huge difference. A guy like Richard Mayorgia would be a BEAST on the streets, while Khan would get whipped by guys with lesser ability. And a guy like Tua or Tyson.... forget about it. I will take that kind of boxer any day of the week.

 

Mayorga and Tyson would be terrifying in a streetfight lol

The main benefit to boxing is your ability to take shots imo. Normally guys go in chin up swinging, as a boxer you don't lean back or that newb stuff, you get through those shots whether a few of them land or not and do your damage quickly.

Against a guy who's a really experienced fighter though, a boxer has no advantage because guys like that typically know they can take shots and know that aggression wins. You're in their house, basically, same way you'd dominate them in the ring they'll dominate you in the street/club/whatever.

So basically don't **** around with people because you never know. If a guy's being a major douche and you want to kick the **** out of him, remember that he's probably always like that and other people have probably tried to kick the **** out of him before...or he's just a dumbass.

 

Can't say I agree. Sure, boxing is controlled and limited, but training every facet of your body and mind to engage in combat on trained instinct consistently will make you a straight up fighter. If need be, that role can be assumed by the fighter outside of the ring. It's not ideal, it's not recommended, and it's not at all full-proof in the street, but it's there. A serious pugilist is, at his heart, a fighter, and I see the bare fundamentals of controlling distance, defending one's head and body, and setting up short accurate blows with full torque as more than enough for someone who's life is in danger against the average unarmed aggressor.

 

Khan is far from the most feather fisted boxer I reckon he has more power relative to a guy like burns. Not to mention more than enough power to KTFO almost every non- professional fighter he had a street fight with.

 

Well for one, it would mostly depend on the individual. How experienced is he? An amateur?
Boxing does not just give you "striking" ability. Striking sounds dirty. Too MMA -ish.
Boxing gives you, for the most part, the ability to control an individual from all aspects. Especially one who doesn't know how to respond and gives off the body language a boxer is used to reading.

You say street fights have so many other factors to consider. Which is all true. But those factors could be on your side/favor too. Not just the aggressor.
In fact, it could be you who outnumbers the guy, you who has the shank or bat, you who could grab like a ***** and wrestle him to the ground. The point is you'd still have the advantage seeing as how on top being a ***** with the dirty ****, you'd also know how to box. Who knows, the opportunity might show up in between the biting and eye gouging where you can at the very least block/slip a slap. That alone puts you on top.

The ability to throw punches is the last thing someone needs to worry about when confronting a boxer. Or most type of fighters for the most part.

 

:deal

We can sugar coat the sport all we want and make it sound clean and civilized. And only those who sit and watch from the sidelines will throw out words like sportsmanship, the sweet science, etc..
But boxing is learning how to hurt your opponent. It's disciplined, but it requires certain hunger to KNOW you are learning not just to defend yourself, but literally hurt other people.

 

Khan would NOT get whipped, come on.

I've heard stories about pros with low KO records laying guys out on the street. I believe it because there's no gloves or skilled opponents on the street.

 

Very true

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt8thufC6oo[/ame]

 

A few stories come to mind when involving boxing and street fights

A friend of a friend is a pro Super bant with a losing record, when he was making his transition to the pro ranks 3 lads tried to mug him as he was walking home drunk by himself, he managed to knock out 2 before slipping in a icy puddle and faceplanting chipping his front teeth and breaking his nose, in the process.

The same lad who walks around on about 57-60 kg and is 5,4 was in a pub when this massive guy kept knocking into him, on the sixth time, the lad turned to this big guy and said 'mate sixth time stop it', the guy looked at him as if to say what are you going to do about it. so the big guy then started doing on purpose, on tenth time the lad turned around threw a 3 punch combo and big guy was on the ground with a broken jaw.

A rugby lad i used to work with would always look for fights and he picked a fight with a small guy who turned out to be a county semi finalist. My work mate got ****ed up.

IMO boxing helps a lot on the street, but is so much easier to walk away

 

See, now you're being specific about certain scenarios where you're nullifying boxing. Of course anything could happen. But it goes both ways.
Don't forget you already have the same natural ability or instinct to grab someone in a headlock or pin him down.