Is Boxing a Martial Art?

Boxing is a sport period!very seldom do boxers get into street fights because they have to protect their hands. Their hands is their investment and livilyhood.

 

so it's a sport designed for fighting?
then it's a martial art.

 

How often do other types of martial artists get into street fights?

I'm thinking a knife in the kidneys might put a cramp in my livelihood as well.

 

really? wow! so i suppose all those street fights that involved boxers were flukes huh? so many of them too. besides, not all boxers are professionals. i'm a boxer and i've been in fights. i'm not protecting my hands unnecessarily. besides, i've seen other so called martial artists that refuse to fight because they might injure themselves and not compete in the next tae kwon do or karatedo tournament.

like ap owen said, a knife in the kidney or the throat would put a crimp in your style.

 

The point we have to grasp, surely, is that we are FED UP TO THE MEDULLA OBLONGATA* of childish morons who want to make a distinction between 'combat sports' and 'martial arts'- the same kind of absolute scum to whom anything 'western' is always 'primitive' (compare boxing to karate. Which one is more complex and sophisticated?). Not all boxers go down the road of being proffessional fighters. Many gangsters, such as the krays or so I hear, trained as boxers in their youth.

*What does this mean?

 

Sweet Science of Fisticuffs. Groovy.

It's cool to see a bunch of folks who acknowledge boxing's worth, as it seems like a lot of the more exotic guys are quick to discount it. But as life has taught me, people who talk poorly about boxing have not faced a skilled proponent of the Sweet Science.

Most people have no experience with boxing outside of famous heavyweights, and they play a very different game than textbook pugilism. I've always seen a good boxer as being quick, efficient and effective; no movement without purpose and every one leading into a possibility for any of the others to come out.

A boxer has a handful of punches, but he can apply each one from such a startling range of positions and situations that would surprise most. And (as has already been noted extensively) the limited range of techniques means that he spends A LOT of time perfecting them. Every step, parry, slip, and punch should lead into the next, and in the right hands I guess it would turn into something like chess. Seems like a lot of guys would rather lift weights and get big than hone their techniques, but that's just individual outlook.

Boxing has no abstractions, but this is one of its biggest strengths. There's no dead weight, no gis or sashes or praying to the founders. Belts are for holding your pants up and beating your children, IMO, and I would much rather have a mastery of effective fundamentals than a limitless range of esoteric techniques -- an oversimplification, but we've all got preferences.

Keep It Simple Stupid has always served me well, and I'll happily ride the coattails of all the good folks who've observed that someone who dismisses boxing as a true fighting art has just never gone toe to toe with a boxer.

In conclusion, boxing certainly does not have the wide range of techniques required in an art expected to deal with kicks to the head, sword-wielding madmen and eight different opponents at once, but its simplicity (when properly trained) allows it to be adapted quite quickly to any situation. And, again, I don't know how often your average Joe Sixpack, confronted "on the street" by whatever lowlife, will have to deal with kicks to the head, sword-wielding madmen or eight different opponents at once.

It doesn't occupy the same position as 17th century iaijutsu, but it was never meant to. Even if you really like oranges, an apple is an apple and a good apple shouldn't be criticized for not being a good orange, right?

Thanks for the soapbox.

 

Welcome to MAP Fallacio - you speak sense

 

Isn't gracie doing an MA called BJJ ? thats a MA is it not ? And isn't UFC pay per view ?

 

i can't believe this thing is still alive!

***goes and bangs head against the wall***

 

You'll have to know there's two sides of Boxing the competitione side which is the sport and the martial side which is the martial art, it's just like some martial arts having the sport side and the martial side.

 

Welcome fallacio. I see you rock
now can this thread die?

 

I've been steering clear of this for now, but I just wanted to say this. Your saying boxers choose to avoid street fights to protect their hands. If they have the choice, why would anyone get into it??????????? Seems pretty stupid to me. Your creating a situation with the choice to choose to fight or not to fight, then adding a reason to discredit boxers in the bogus situation.

 

I used to box about 17 years ago and wish i'd kept it up but i was too interested in alchohol and women to keep up the training , which involved stuff like 5 mile runs carrying light weights in your hands for stamina training. Saying that since i've been learning taekwondo my punches have definitaley got stronger.

 

people! before you post anything new, read the 3 pages of post. all of it. i believe that this has been discussed as far as it could go. please let this thread die.

 

Ha Ha Ha, What a twisted read. Yes please let it die a miserable, lowly, painful death. This thread is dead.

 

i say yes boxing is a martial art
its an art
and martial means fightin, combat, or war
so it could be called a combatative art or martial art in this case

 

Maybe someone should lock this thread already. But while we are at asking pointless questions I will take the opportunity to introduce some questions of my own

1) Are kung fu systems martial arts?
2) Are karate systems martial arts?
3) Are MT systems martial arts?
4) What about Jujitsu, is that a martial art?
5) Judo, could that be a martial art?
6) Aikido, martial art?
7) *Add any other martial art here and proceed to randomly question whether its a martial art or not*

 

7 is not a martial art

 

I hear origami's secret paper slash techniques are vicous. and the masters use metal sheet the call it 'iron fold'. Great in combat, and very arty. so i say its a martial art.

 

short and sweet and in my eyes correct
anything that teaches you how to attack and defend yourself is a martial art
i do twk but have a helluva lot of respect for boxers. You can always tell at sparring whos did boxing before and who hasnt

boxing is an art just like karate, ju jitsu or akido
just my 2 pennies