Karate v Boxing

[Traditional-Fist]

Boxers are trained to fight one style, in karate you are trained to defend in many different ways....in my opinion a well trained martial artist would do quite well against a well trained boxer.

Agreed. A lack of good karate schools does not make karate an inferior art. The art and its various styles are constant and there are schools that teach them the way they are meant to be taught, which in many cases means lethal blows, takedowns, grappling and even ground fighting, and with realistic sparring thrown in.

When you put that kind of karate against boxing then the result in many cases should be a forgone conclusion. Just my opinion.

[White Warlock]

The error in assumptions here are that the boxer practices a very small repertoire of actions, and thus becomes exceedingly good at those few actions. Given the opportunity to apply those actions, he would easily overwhelm a karatekan with the same amount of time in training.

Also remember that boxers practice almost all the time with 'resistance.' This means they don't just go through the motions, they apply their techniques in a full-on sporting event, albeit with rules that are designed to decrease injury and allow the boxer to focus on their 'few actions.' Contrast that to the 'average' karatekan, whose focus is more on kata and repetition, not on applying regularly against resisting opponents.

It is my opinion that all things being equal, the boxer would own a confrontation if he were able to close the gap. This said, one of the boxers 'few actions' is that of closing the gap, so they are pretty good at getting inside.

Having a bag full of options is not necessarily better than being adept at a handful of actions.

[Traditional-Fist]

The error in assumptions here are that the boxer practices a very small repertoire of actions, and thus becomes exceedingly good at those few actions. Given the opportunity to apply those actions, he would easily overwhelm a karatekan with the same amount of time in training.

Yes, "with the same amount of time in training". Karate takes longer to make effective and no one is denying that. Boxing is a relatively simple art as a result it takes a shorter time period to make it effective. If I recall correctly the original question on this thread did not presume the same amount of training time for both boxer and karatekai. However, I still hold that karate is by its nature a superior art and if trained right, it would beat boxing. My opinion.

Also remember that boxers practice almost all the time with 'resistance.' This means they don't just go through the motions, they apply their techniques in a full-on sporting event, albeit with rules that are designed to decrease injury and allow the boxer to focus on their 'few actions.' Contrast that to the 'average' karatekan, whose focus is more on kata and repetition, not on applying regularly against resisting opponents.

Again, I am not comparing the average karatekai with the average boxer. Lets say that I am comparing boxing at its best with karate at its best and in a street scenario. That is the only way you are going to get a realistic result. Furthermore, there are karatekai who still practise hardcore, i.e. they do resistance training and they fight hard using a greater variety of techniques than the "average" karatekai and a hell of a lot more techniques when compared to any boxer (high and low kicks, greater variety of punching and bareknuckle at that, plus openhanded techniques, grappling, takedowns and even in some cases (okinawa) groundfighting. I am not even going into karate's fighting concepts and principles, internals and etc.

Their training involves a lot more than "going through the motions"

It is my opinion that all things being equal,

That is what I am talking about ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL. That is, we are not talking about the average boxers training in an average gyms, that generally provide better training than an average karate dojos Vs. the average karatekai who more than likely will be training and "going through the motions" in a Mcdojo. We are now talking about well trainned boxers versus hardcore trained karatekai.

the boxer would own a confrontation if he were able to close the gap. This said, one of the boxers 'few actions' is that of closing the gap, so they are pretty good at getting inside.

Against a hardcore trained Okinawan karatekai (many of whom stress close range infighting) the boxer may have his head taken off or his whole body takendown and grappled on the ground, that is if he does manage to close the range.

Having a bag full of options is not necessarily better than being adept at a handful of actions.

By that logic you are saying that boxing is not only superior to all karate styles on the face of this planet but also to all the kungfu styles as well.

Eventhough being good at performing a few techniques is better than being bad at performing many, in karate (as well as kung fu), one ultimately, comes to drill and use the techniques that work for one. No one enters a confrontation planning to use a zillion techniques.

There is a logic to the old training methods, a logic that may not be so apparent from a Western boxing's point of view, but it is a methodology that has worked for thousands of years.

To make real karate effective needs a longer timespan than boxing.

[Patrick]

Hello,

This thread seems to have run it's course, now a few days short of a year old and on page 18. Let's not forget, style vs. style - who would win? type threads do not really have a place here at KarateForums.com.

Thanks.