It blows away MT for defense and footwork However I don’t like sparring too much because the opp Always goes insane With MT the sparing was always controlled
Irrespective whether it’s MT or boxing, I don’t think anyone should be going insane in sparring. IMO, sparring requires control. Also, didn’t you say earlier that wrestling’s the best system?
There are trade-offs when comparing different arts. Muay Thai has a lot broader content than boxing--more places you are allowed to hit an opponent, so more types of strikes and more places to defend. (Disclaimer: I am not an expert on boxing, but do have a bit of Muay Thai knowledge.) Someone who learns boxing (well) should have strong footwork and evasive movement. They will be especially good at evading punches when in punching range, at making angles and attacking with punches. But they will not have strong defenses against kicks, which are longer ranges. This isn't to say that they will just fall over immediately against someone who is good at kicking. But it won't be a situation the boxer is very familiar with, the range of engagement will be a bit different than they are used to, etc. One of the ways boxers add power to their strikes involves very strong torquing on some strikes. This can leave you vulnerable to strikes that aren't legal in boxing (so it isn't an issue for the sport). Again, that isn't to say that punching that way is bad necessarily, but if all of your hook punches leave you exposed to a leg kick counter, an opponent may pick up on that and exploit it. Boxing is much more focused than Muay Thai. If you take two people, and have person A do 1000 hours of Muay Thai training, and person B do 1000 hours of boxing, the boxer is going to spend that time practicing a smaller set of techniques. They will have better punching, evasive head movement, and footwork, because they have spent more time on those than person A spends. Person A, though, will be familiar with more ranges (punching range and kicking range), have some grappling (clinch work), and learn to kick & defend against kicks. Their footwork won't be as good, their evasive movement won't be as good either. (You can move your head/slip/dodge, or lean back to avoid kicks, etc, but this doesn't get as much practice as you'd get in boxing.) I'd say against an untrained person, boxing is pretty good because most untrained people will tend to punch rather than kick. A boxer will be good at keeping the attacker from connecting with those punches. The thing they'd need to watch out for is being tied up/taken down. Muay Thai is also pretty good against an untrained person--there are tools to keep someone away from you (push kick, or hit them with kicks before they get in punching range). Probably more vulnerable to take downs (since you are throwing kicks). Against a trained fighter? If the fighter is good at kicks and controlling range, the boxer is probably going to be in more trouble. If the fighter is good at grappling, the MT guy is again probably a bit better off (due to training some grappling out of the clinch, vs generally no grappling in boxing), though that may be balanced by kicking (which makes you more vulnerable to take-downs). Sorry that was a bit of a long ramble. In summary, boxing is more focused, so you are strong in a few areas (footwork, evasive movement inside punching range but disregarding kicks/strikes to the legs/etc, and punching). Muay Thai is broader, you will have a larger tool kit but you won't be as strong in each area as you are spreading your training time over more techniques. Some Muay Thai styles don't really do much in terms of evasion at all, while others are very evasive (but not, IMO, to the level of boxing, which is more evasive). This is more of a 'which gym you train at' thing than a style thing. That said, I have heard that boxing gyms do tend to spar harder than MT gyms. MT developed in a place where fighting very often was common, so traditionally sparring is pretty light so they can recover between fights. Boxing developed in a place where fights were less frequent--fighters could afford the wear & tear of harder sparring when you don't always have a fight in a week or two.
always like this clip........ Controls the space very well, keeps his distance, hits and moves... Gotta respect boxers those who box, they train to hit, and not get hit.... .
I've always been partial to this clip: I have also seen other similar vidoes (trained boxer challenging untrained people to try to land a punch). While the plural of anecdote is not 'evidence', it seems relatively straightforward to me that an untrained person is going to have a lot of trouble landing shots on someone who has seriously & properly trained their evasive skills. And while I haven't seen data on it, my impression is that the vast majority of untrained people will tend to do one of the following in a fight: - Try to tackle/take to the ground. OR - Try to punch Boxing is, as far as I know, the most focused style available for learning to evade punches. That is, you can learn to evade punches in other styles/sports/arts, but: - Boxing will spend more of their training time on this than any other art/style I'm aware of. - AND, since boxing is also the most focused style for throwing punches (as far as I'm aware), you are going to be training that evasion against skilled punchers. I have no trouble believing that a trained boxer, assuming they are aware of the guy throwing the punch (so not a sneak attack), will be very, very hard for an untrained person to hit with any sort of force. (Maybe some glancing blows, but its going to be hard to land anything solid enough to do lots of damage.) From a self-defense perspective, if I was worried I'd end up in violent situations I couldn't avoid, I'd also train some basic takedown defense; I'd want to be good enough to have good odds at stopping an untrained person from taking me to the ground. Though really, for self-defense, your time is probably better spent training situational awareness/self control (don't let anger/pride cause you to escalate a situation you could have gotten out of or de-escalated)/running. Though aside from running, those won't improve your fitness/physical confidence/etc.
Boxing is superb for self defense because most untrained attackers always throw punches . I still feel safer with palm strikes , hammer fists and elbows as my fists can easily break
