Learning to fight—can be a major step and improvement in your life. However, many ways present this opportunity, as there are plenty of martial arts to choose from. This article will examine the differences between boxing and street fighting to see which is better.
So, what is the difference between the two?
While boxing is a martial art that can be traced back to 3000 BC, street fighting isn’t a particular fighting style, but more of a skill and a scenario. The first utilizes punching techniques, such as hook, jab, and straight punch. The latter is more of an “anything goes” type of fighting style.
If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to fight, all you need to do is pick any martial art and stick with it for long enough. As time will progress, assuming you stay consistent with the activity, you’ll learn self-defense.
However, there’s more to it. All martial arts provide their trainees with countless mental and physical benefits, such as better physical shape and increased confidence. Now, street fighting doesn’t really do that, as it doesn’t promote a healthy lifestyle and values, such as respect and work-ethic.
From the get-go, we can sense a major difference in the audience each fighting style aims to. That’ll be the primary difference between them. Moreover, it’ll be what helps you decide which of them to pick up and start to learn.
Before diving in, I want to encourage you to read about why boxing is good for reducing anger, stress, and aggression levels. Truly, it’s one of the primary reasons please start their training for.
The differences between boxing and street fighting
The first part of this article will tackle two differences between boxing and street fighting. Knowing these differences—is the first step toward making a wiser choice.
Right now, you may desire to learn how to fight and do so exclusively. However, as you’ll get into the flow of things, you may also want to grasp all the values and benefits a martial art, like boxing, provides.
#1 – Fighting techniques
The first difference between the two fighting styles—is what they teach. Inevitably, all martial arts teach different techniques. That happens because each of them progresses over time and makes its own path. Thus, what it becomes will be different from other martial arts.
While boxing is the art of punching in various ways, such as using the hook, uppercut, jab, and straight punch, street fighting utilizes all fighting movements, including unethical ones. Nonetheless, boxing brings more value to the table, since it also preaches critical values that’ll help you in your life.
However, this primary difference is likely everything you need to make your decision. If you want to study many fighting techniques, including punching, kicking, grappling, with some unethical ones, such as groin kicks and eye gouges, it’ll be best to stick with street fighting.
If, on the other hand, you desire to study a strict martial art that uses punching as its sole source for inflicting damage, consider learning boxing.
As I put it, it sounds as if street fighting is an unethical sport. However, that’s not the case; its sole purpose is to win fights, regardless of the ways you use to do so.
#2 – Rules & Guidelines
The second difference, which I briefly went over—is the rules each fighting style has. Eventually, both have unwritten rules. However, only one has written ones. So, let’s examine some of them.
Having the presence of rules—is critical, as you wan to keep yourself and others as injury-free as possible. If, however, you can’t do so, you’ll get into a world of pain, literally.
Boxing has a series of written rules and guidelines. They’re written in a way that allows all its trainees to understand them, as they’re simple and easy to read. Their purpose is to keep other people as safe as possible. Let’s examine a few of them.
- No hitting below the belt
- No striking to the kidneys
- No striking to the back of the head
- No punching to the back
- Low blows are illegal
Of course, there are plenty more; you can read the entire list by following the link.
On the other hand, street fighting has no rules. As a result, the rate of injuries is much higher than in any other sport. If boxing is the second most dangerous sport globally, guess what spot street fighting would be at if it were a sport.
That’s another consideration to have before making your choice and starting your training.
Which is better, boxing or street fighting?
When discussing which style is better—we must look at the bigger picture. If we were to look at two fighters, each from another style, we would likely get to the same conclusion. However, once we examine all the characteristics of each one, we come to a more decisive conclusion.
Boxing is better than street fighting because it’s a strict, effective, and beneficial martial art—that’s rather safe. On the other hand, street fighting is an unregulated fighting style that uses all movements, even if unethical. As a result, there are no rules and guidelines to keep this activity and its participants safe.
Although street fighting may be effective for, well, the street, there’s nothing beyond that. When comparing the two, we find it to be a safe answer we can roll with.
You should learn boxing.
If you want to train boxing at home, hold up! At some point, you’d have to buy the essential gear to ensure you learn the art of punching the right way. So, I encourage you to buy these two items: This punching bag and these punching gloves. They’ll both make your journey much easier.
Which is better for self-defense, boxing or street fighting?
For self-defense, boxing is better than street fighting because it teaches you adaptive and dynamic tools to solve any dangerous scenario. Likewise, it teaches you a set of skills that allow you to knock any opponent with a single combination. Street fighting simply doesn’t provide as much utility for that.
If you desire to learn effective and applicable to real-life techniques, boxing is your decision. You may only be interested in learning self-defense, and still, I’m confident you’ll enjoy a strict and regulated martial art more than an unregulated, unsafe one.
Final words
To end this article, I want to mention the positive impact boxing had and still has on its many trainees. The people who invest their time and effort into learning a martial art—reap huge results.
Not only do they learn how to fight fiercely, but they also experience improvements in both their physical and mental selves. For that reason, they live a better, more fulfilling life, than most people who never tried to better themselves.
Try out boxing today, I’m confident you won’t regret it.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you’ll also enjoy reading about boxing vs. BJJ. Who knows, you may end up learning BJJ, as you’d like the idea of learning to grapple.