Boy, did my post a few days ago (with the tongue in cheek title: “Another Reason Why BJJ is Better Than Boxing“) set off a firestorm
I admit it: I’m biased! I run a site called “grapplearts,”, not “boxingarts.”
I spend my time rolling around on the ground with men wearing pyjamas or spandex, not circling them and trading punches. And unlike the anonymous sniping that is so prevalent on the internet, I also signed my name to my inflammatory post!
Nevertheless, here are just a few of the outraged rebuttals I received:
“BOXING IS EFFECTIVE”
Agreed! I think that boxing becomes an effective very quickly – faster than most other striking arts actually.
“BOXING IS MORE EFFECTIVE THAN BJJ”
I Disagree! If we’re comparing pure style to pure style, then 95% of the time BJJ will beat boxing (the early UFC’s proved that).
Please note that I’m NOT saying that boxing has no place in MMA – of course it does. MMA stands for “Mixed” Martial Arts, and to be effective in Mixed Martial Arts you need to MIX your training (wrestling AND striking AND grappling)
“BOXING IS SUBTLE”
Agreed! The timing, distancing and rhythm for high level boxing can be very subtle.
“BOXING IS MORE SUBTLE THAN JIU-JITSU”
I Disagree! I’m not sure how I’d quantify this, but I think that Boxing relies on reflexes and instant responses. The slower pace of BJJ allows for a lot more adjustments and application of subtle nuance than boxing.
Also each individual technique in a martial art has subtle nuances that require tweaking and adjustment, and BJJ has a lot more techniques than boxing (which was the original point of the post).
“BOXING TAKES A LONG TIME TO MASTER / BOXING IS HARD TO MASTER
Agreed! It takes a lot of time, blood, sweat, tears and effort to get good at boxing. No doubt about it.
“THAI BOXING HAS A LOT OF TECHNIQUES”
Yup! It has more techniques than boxing. And BJJ has more techniques than Thai boxing
AND NOW BACK TO MY MAIN POINT…
By now it should be obvious that I was being a bit tongue in cheek with my choice of a post title, but the bottom line still stands. Boxers don’t stand around showing each other 15 variations of the ‘inside-out-mongoose-punch’ the way BJJ’ers do.
Of course Prince Naseem will now probably come out with an instructional DVD series, show 25 new punches and blow my argument completely out of the water…
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