Boxing or Taekwondo, which is better in a street fight?

[LeonardShelby]

Between the two which would better prepare you for a street fight? Don't mention another fighting style please, only pick one of the two.

Boxing

Taeknowndo

[Anonymous]

It depends on the practitioner, and not the practice itself. What do you think would happen if an experienced boxer gets into a scrap with some amateur taekwondo student? Or vice versa.

But of course your response to that would be "assuming they're both very experienced", to which I would say that they wouldn't be in a street fight to begin with because they know better ;)

But then you are asking in a hypothetical situation... but for a street fight, which simulates a real world experience. So I'd go back to my original point of saying that in a real world situation, it depends on YOU and not just what martial art or combat sport you practice. Boxing is obviously a hands only, striking sport. Many boxers these days are multi-discipline students due to the rise in popularity of MMA.

Boxers feel at home when the fight is standing, when the fight is at their pace, when they find a good rhythm against an opponent (which usually takes a few rounds to start honing in on this), and staying out of a clinch.

Taekwondo needs to be looked at for it's purpose and even things like its fighting stance. The stance many people adopt involves having your hands low (as opposed to a boxer keeping their hands up). Taekwondo is more of a leg striking sport than it is using the upper body. It was developed for self-defense but can obviously be used in a fight.

So if you imagine these two people squaring off, you'll have one that is using his/her core power to land shots with their upper body, while the other is trying to maintain distance in order to land kicks. Kicks are more devastating if they land right, but take more effort to get going (even with Taekwondo emphasizing fast leg strikes, they're counting on the opponent also fighting in Taekwondo). All it takes is catching one of those kicks and putting the kicker off balance or on the ground, and then he's out of his element (because his style isn't meant to stand in there and fight; it's self-defense).

[Opinion Owner]

So even on the ground, which is where a majority of street fights end up, the boxer still has the advantage.

[Ghosty]

Having experience in all 3 activities, first off it extremely depends on the participants, and their experience in Boxing/Taek..
Secondly, most of the streetlights become "grappling", hugging and uncontrolled mashing after maximal 5seconds. In close combat Boxing has a HUGE advantage over Taek, which mostly is about fancy kicks (no offence). The chance you have with Taek is to use your kicks before the fight gets into close range. Knowing how those fights start (Eeeh you looking at mah giiirl? whassup?), they probably already are in the close range, and will start with a sucker punch/push punch combo. Boxers have the ultimate training and reflections for dodging, blocking and countering in those scenarios. That's actually what you learn. Of course you won't be able to do kicks, but you'd need distance for those either way. Which you probably wouldn't have. So talking only about streetfights, I'd go with boxing for sure.

And boxing has a steeper learning curve, so the time spend to learn some 540° kicks, would be rather invested in getting faster at dodging&jabbing. For sure more useful in a streetfight situation.

(@all Taekwondo fans; my post only is about its use in a street fight, not about the concept of it as a martial art. #nohate).

[Marihorror]

I'm actually a black belt in taekwondo so I might be a bit biased. Taekwondo has more of an emphasis on foot technique, but also teaches hand strikes that are designed to quickly take out an opponent therefore I think it would be more valuable. We know how to use our entire body rather than just our hands like boxers.

[LeonardShelby]

May I friend you to ask and learn a little bit more about it?

[Marihorror]

sure :)

[mutedaisy]

Boxing, is better, because in a street fight you want it to end as soon as possible. Precise punches are the best.

[MartinMarinov]

Im taekwondo black belt 7 years of training and currently practice boxing for about 2 years.
1. Its mostly about the fighter not the style.
2. Taekwondo takes a lot of time to be any good at, but with high reward compared to boxing where you learn faster and is more useful on a noobye level.
3. Taekwondo is very dangerous in a street fight, only if you are good, cuz kicking is not expected and land very easy and you can end fight insantly, but when things get close range its not enough and you need some punching and grappling skills.
4. You need both, but if you dont have time go for boxing, cuz taekwondo is harder. But if you get good in taekwondo you can be very dominant i a fight, cuz you can land heavy hits from a distance which have way more power than punching and are harder to avoid. Dont go for fancy kicks though. Stay with the basic side and front kick.
5. Never get into fight when drunk, your reactions are slow and usualy you thing you are god and get too careless.

[RichardBoehner]

Boxing probably. I'm a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and i'm not useless in a fight by any means, but most of the stuff they teach you is forms and shit, and the sparring is mediated with pads and people in real fights don't fight fair like that. Try using oh jung when a guy tries to mug you with a knife, you'll be dead by the crane stance. The real practical shit is brazilian jiu jitsu or krav maga, but if its between the 2 go with boxing.

[rthomas43]

Boxing, definitely.
For Taekwondo to be effective, you have to have just about mastered it for it to be useful in a street fight.
In Taekwondo, you need space in order to fully use your tools. Boxing is effective even in close proximity, which is where many street fights occur.

[Aizou]

I'd say go with Taekwondo, as someone already mentioned.

I'm pretty sure it's more versatile than boxing, and versatility
is of pretty high importance in a street fight
where things like rules don't play a role..

That said, I haven't actually seen the two go up
against each other before, so I can only
make a judgement from what I think. ^.~

[nickstaa]

Boxing usually, but both could have advantages I guess, but there are a lot more punches on street fights and they usually don't last long so you want to have a knockout punch. Not just a jab.

Being street smart will be 20× more better than both though.

[kheserthorpe]

Either would be potentially useful.

In practice the issue is that both are useless unless you are practicing them full contact continuous sparring.

It's far, far easier to find boxing instruction with that focus.

[KillerZombieHunter]

Once, my friend was showing off her new taekwondo skill and accidentally hit me below the knee. It still kinda hurts till today. Never mess with a taekwondo student.

[Ghosty]

What if I told you that a boxer miscalculating his force and punching you would harm you too? ;)

[KillerZombieHunter]

I believe that would also hurt real bad :')))

[decemberxblue]

Boxing, easily.

Taekwondo requires that your pants have some sort of elasticity, fighting in large quarters, etc.

However, I prefer Muay Thai over them both.

[SuperNurse42]

Wrestling.

[rthomas43]

"Don't mention another fighting style please, only pick one of the two."

Nurse says "Fuck that, I do what I want"

I agree though.

[SuperNurse42]

I did vote boxing between the two.

[BlackDawn]

Neither

[rocelot]

Krav Maga.