When I was a kid I remember wondering what was best, wrestling or boxing. At the time I thought boxing was the best but when karate became popular in the 60′s – the argument became boxing or karate! Well fast forward past the 90′s (was a very confused time) and now if you ask any kid… they will no longer say jiu-jitsu but mma! Why to a teenaged kid that would not even watch a boxing match – MMA is king!

So why am I not impressed with the flavor of the day? I am not out to challenge anyone or trying to get an accomplished martial artist in judo, muay thai, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, or boxing to come over the dark side. But what I do want to do in this post is to examine how effective various martial arts would be in a real fight for an average guy/gal that has a couple of years experience under his/her belt.

I also want to look at some other factors such as the point of each martial art… you know what is it good for anyway? Don’t get mad but if your martial art has lots of rules that don’t easily transition to a real fight – what good is it in a fight (unless you are a world class fighter – then it makes no difference what you learn… it will all work)?

Let’s look at boxing, wrestling, muay thai, jiu-jitsu, judo, aikido and karate (including kung fu with karate as both are similar) in light of how easy is it to learn, what is the goal of the martial art, and does it work in a fight for most people (is it effective in most situations?). Then I’ll look at karate and kung fu in general terms because our stuff is not immune to my criteria (80% of karate and kung fu as it is taught would not work well in a real fight).

Now that I have made a lot of friends and I don’t think I’ve excluded anyone I would like commenters to keep your responsive civil and to the points. I will not post personal attacks but please feel free to civilly disagree and make your points. I will be happy to respond comments.

Boxing is fairly easy to learn the basics but really hard to do it right. One has to get into great physical shape to excel in this sport. The goal of boxing is to win on the street or in the ring with one’s punches. All other strikes are illegal. I do not think boxing would work very well unless you were a good boxer in a fight with someone else that did not want to do anything but punches. Boxing can work in a mass attack if he can avoid the ground so I give boxing two kicks (out of five).

Wrestling is taught in school for most males at some point so there are many good basic wrestlers (as I would categorize myself). Again wrestling like boxing takes a lot of conditioning if one wants to excel at wrestling. The goal of wrestling is mostly sport as it has no defenses against striking unless the wrestler learns additional skills. While the UFC is awash in wrestlers that have transitioned to fighting, the average wrestler can win most fights if he can take the fight to the ground. As most untrained fighters have no defense against ground fighters – wrestling can be effective sometimes. However one cannot easily defend against a mass attack nor avoid a bystander punting a goal at wrestler on the ground so I would give wrestling one kick on my scale.

Muay Thai is a sport that is not easy to learn because of the conditioning. While muay thai does strike with hands, elbows, knees, and feet – the rules do not favor fighting as the groin is not open. I would say that muay thai does come closer to an effective method of fighting because it would work well against a mass attack so long as the fighter does not get taken to the ground. Because of the major conditioning of body parts (deadening the shins for instance) I would only give muay thai three kicks on my scale.

I’m going to lump in jiu-jitsu, judo, and aikido together as one came from the other and share many common moves. While it is true that judo is more dependent on transitional moves (getting the opponent to the ground), jiu-jitsu is more of a ground fighting method and aikido mostly uses ones attack against the attacker, none of these are easy to use and are not really striking martial arts. Practitioners would have to learn striking to effectively survive a real fight with no rules. I am grossly oversimplifying here but my point is still valid. I would say that none of these styles would come out well against a mass attack. So based on the complexity of learning and the lack of striking – I can only give these styles one kick on my scale.

Now let’s look at karate and kung fu as it is taught. No paneca here either. While karate can be a good fighting style – as it is taught it does not have the conditioning of many type of fighting – it is for the common man (read person). Karate learning styles can be easier than most styles as it does not take more than a couple of years to be proficient for most people. Karate can work if a student was taught by a proficient teacher. Karate/kung fu works well against mass attacks if the student is any good. Before I assign karate/kung fu a kick scale consider the types of schools and ways to teaching.

• Some karate/kung fu styles do not allow sparring.
• Some karate/kung fu styles teach non-contact sparring.
• Some karate/kung fu styles teach semi-contact sparring.
• Some karate/kung fu styles teach the equivalent of kick boxing.
• Some karate/kung fu styles are old school – meaning no gloves and flat feet.
• Some karate/kung fu styles are more modern and use pads and move around.
• Some karate/kung fu styles have open groin shots in semi-contact.
• Some karate/kung fu styles give more points for kicks and flying kicks than for punches.
• Some karate/kung fu styles emphasize more conditioning than fighting (karate aerobics).
• Some karate/kung fu styles’ instructors have never been in a real fight.

So let me opine about karate/kung fu styles and weed the 80% of karate that does not work.

If the style does not sparring or uses non-contact sparing I give that style one kick on my scale.

If the style does not have groin shots or gives more points (in training) for kicks or flying kicks than punches – I give that style one kick.

If the style is for yuppies wanting to get into shape (karate aerobics) I give that style no kicks.

If the style teaches kick boxing but no groin shots – I give that three kicks.

If you instructor tells you he thinks it will work if he ever had to get into a fight (meaning he does not know) – Run from that school. Why pay money for something the instructor does not believe in?

If the style allows groin shots in sparring, uses hand/food pads of some kind, moves around, uses semi-contact (can get hard at top levels), the instructor is confident and has fought before, counts the same for a kick or punch… the student has a chance…  that is only about 20% of the schools out there.

Lineage means nothing unless it works. All of the black belts, trophy’s, free karate babysitting services and such are just meaningless unless a student and learn how to fight pretty good in a couple of years.

So if you find a good school as I have outlined – I would give that school four kicks – on a five kick scale? Why not five kicks? That is up to the student. I cannot guess how hard the student wants it.

So I want to clarify I do not dislike other styles and I think very highly of them. And I think most any style can be very effective against most attacks – all I reviewed here is if a person only had a couple of years to invest – what would he or she need to learn to fight back!

I am interested in your opinion – please let me know your thoughts!

The news has been full of knife attacks and even the TSA has been considering letting people fly with small pocket knives. It is even scarier to some so removed from fighting or using hand tools that in my estimation I think most people think that a knife attack is not survivable!

I would like to make the point that as in any other kind of attack (read club, gun, baseball bat, hand to hand or whatever) – they are all serious. You can get hurt if you are not a trained fighter. Heck even if you are a trained fighter – you can get hurt.

In this post I’ll evaluate the obvious (to me) about knife attacks (or really any attack – they are all the same from a self defense point of view). But first review this video for a realistic overview.

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Wow that first video with the cop shooting point blank at the guy with the knife and he missed? Most people would never think it would be possible to miss at that range – but as you saw it happens.

The rest of the videos should show you that your best defense is to lean how to fight. But say you learn how to fight – what are your chances?

First off a knife, gun, bat, rocks or whatever gives the attacker an advantage he thinks. And correctly most people that are not trained fighters have not ever come up against a weapon or multiple attackers – would not know how to fight back.

But say you are a trained fighter – are you going to give up because some guy is going to try and kill you? That would be a forgone conclusion that many that are attacked face every day. But that does not have to be the case.

If you like I did – immerse yourself in learning self-defense or fighting arts for several years – if you take to it you tend to learn how to overcome obstacles including ways to face weapon attacks. Really what do you have to lose?

For me a knife attack puts the attacker at a disadvantage. He does not know I’m a trained fighter as I’m not a braggart (I guess other than when I blog) – all he knows is I am a middle-aged man that does not look too intimidating.

So the guy does not want to rob me but wants to slash me – that means I have to defend myself… no other choice (letting the guy stab me is not a reasonable choice – he might kill me).

The first thing to realize – he is depending on his knife – whereas I have at the very least two hands, two elbows, two knees, two feet, teeth (I could go on). However you were trained to fight – it is time to kick in your defense… no rules (that attacker does not have any) but use whatever is at your disposal to mitigate the attack and use all of your tools against his one knife (weapon attackers tend to use the weapon – ignore the rest of their limbs).

So unbeknownst to the attacker – you have superior firepower if you don’t lose your cool. The big thing is to fight the way you train… if you like to fight inside – do it. If like me you like to fight on the outside – do that.

Remember the attacker is banking on his weapon scaring you so if you don’t lose your cool – you should do ok.

So what weapons have I defended against? Knives, clubs, pool cues, tall bar glasses projectiles, tree branches, and at least three of these times against more than one attacker at a time.

I’m nothing special – just a guy that has trained in my youth and enjoyed learning how to defend myself!

Please do not think that I am saying anything is easy – it is not but it is fun to learn how to do something you like… it does not matter if it is boxing, karate, judo, wrestling, or whatever – just so you enjoy it and train for that odd day with the rules of society breakdown.

So I hope many of you are like I have been – ready for whatever the world throws at you.

I just got done watching watching the fight and was amazed at how Manny Pacquiao was able to move. Antonio Margarito was no slouch but I would say after the fourth round is was easy to see that he was slowing down. In my unofficial scorecard – Manny was ahead in all 12 rounds. Margarito’s best round I think was in the 6th where if I remember right he caught Pacquiaoon the ropes with some body shots and an uppercut.

The 10th and 11th rounds were very one sided as Antonio Margarito stopped answering Manny Pacquiano’s punches. I was wondering why the judges did not stop the fight as Margarito also had many cuts on his face. I guess since this was a title fight for the Super Welterweight division and Margarito wanted to keep going – the referee decided to risk the significant damage to the head of Margarito. I think that was a bad decision but I noticed that Pacquiao laid off the 12th round as he was easily ahead and did not have to keep up the heavy leather – what a show of good sportsmanship.

You will have to watch the fight to get the full gist of the action but the judges scored the 12 round bout, 120-108, 119-109, and 118-110 for a unanimous decision for Manny Pacquiao!

For those of you who would like to see some more background for this fight, HBO did a nice piece for your perusal.

Today while was reading the news I saw this article, entitled, “In Rough Slum, Brazil’s Police Try Soft Touch.” Apparently in the favela’s (slums) some cops have been working with the youth to reach out with karate! After a little more research I found out about an organization called, “Fight for Peace” were this NGO (non-governmental organization) also reaches out in a favela to offer boxing & martial arts, personal development, youth support services, job training, and youth leadership!

In this post I will highlight the problems, some traditional solutions, and what I think of this organization’s approach, “Fight for Peace.” First here is the movie trailer – City of God.

I have not seen this movie and I might not have considered it because the trailer seems to point out the gangs. I generally don’t think much of gangs of any kind because my great grandfather was apparently snuffed in New York City after having a disagreement about paying protection money (or the story goes – I was not there).  

After reading this article I am guessing this movie is not glorifying gangs but trying to show the world the challenges. That is a noble endeavour as the first step to changing something is to take a long hard look at the problems. One thing here to know is poor neighborhoods are generally forgotten by developers because no one wants to live there. The people there generally do not have an easy way out so they try to make the best of their situation.

Now if you discount the crime rate in the favelas and poorer sections of anywhere – lower middle class or working class neighborhoods can still be a rough to grow up. Sure there are more opportunities for the children if they want but there is still a lot of pressure to be tough so kids won’t take advantage of you.

The differences are though that most of the favela kids won’t have the opportunities that the working class kids will have.

What is the one thing kids need to succeed? They need to believe they can first and after that they need to know how to go about it!!!

Some solutions have included special schools, clubs and what I’ve always liked are boxing  clubs seem to set up in the poorer neighborhoods! Why? Because poor kids more than any other have a burning desire to succeed at fighting! Kids have to learn how to take care of themselves early or become victims.

The thing about boxing or any martial art is it takes a lot of effort to do good. Sure a street fighter can do ok for a while but put a good fighter against him and he will get his clock cleaned.

Trainers try to instill wisdom into the young fighters because they want the kids to succeed in life. A real messed up kid will not be consistent with her training and never advance to any real success. I found this video about Fight for Peace for your review.

I love watching this video… aren’t kids the same the world over? I mean why really do some kids have lots of opportunities and others have little to no hope? Sure life is hard in some places and the adults might have given up but why should we write off the kids? I know we generally don’t question are place in life but know this… if you don’t like your lot in life… it is up to YOU to change it.

Organizations like Fight for Peace, offer a framework for kids to know there is more out there. There are a lot of other NGO’s, program, organizations that offer similar help for those who seek it out but let me give one example of what we need to overcome to make a positive change.

Kids that are told they are a piece of crap and live in a slum start to believe what they are told and where they live – define them! Both what the kids are told and where they live are not the kids fault (maybe no one person’s fault) but if the kids parents, teachers, people of influence don’t know how to console the kids to be their own advocates and methods of getting ahead in their surroundings – how is a kid going to surmount that?

 I think Fight for Peace is one good approach to change the thinking of the kids in these favela’s and slum’s. Many of the readers of this website like me have been part of a martial arts school for years and have already seen first hand the benefits of training, camaraderie, guidance, and friendship to kids of all socio-economic backgrounds. I have witnessed kids with rough backgrounds transform into wonderful adults because someone thought to enroll them into a boxing club.

Kids are our future. In this age if mindless distractions and schools scaling back on the arts and physical education – kids are a resource we can ill-afford to squander! Support your local boxing, martial arts or youth organization!

Here is another poor kid that made good, the King, Elvis Presley, performing, “In The Ghetto.” I hope you have enjoyed this story about what I believe can be framed as how we can make our world a better place, through martial arts and some outreach. I hope you will consider a gift to Fight for Peace, if this organization meets your criteria for how to help kids succeed life!

I was watching sports on HBO I found a trilogy of fights between Autro “Thunder” Gatti and “Irish” Micky Ward and noted it was a tribute to Gatti’s passing. I’ve not been watching too much boxing in the last 10 years but it has always been one of my favorite fighting contests growing up.

Aturo Gatti was born in Italy and migrated to Canada. He grew up as a teen in New Jersey and was a notable blue collar boxer especially due to his exciting fighting style. I found a good overview of his life here. In this post I’ll talk a bit about his fighting style and show one good highlight video I found of the Gatti vs Ward trilogy. Here is a good overview of the sad case of his murder and the highlights of his boxing career I found.

I would like to commend HBO on highlighting this exciting fighter’s trilogy with Micky Ward. I watch all three fights (which is normally hard for me after watching a lot of MMA) but was action was exciting all the way through. If  you get a chance to see them on HBO – do it.

Save on your sparring gear with a new set.

As I was searching for videos of the fights on youtube and I was (again) disappointed by folks adding music tracks to the fights – often over the ringside announcers. I guess if I was looking for creative music videos I might be interested but if one is looking for information on a boxer – one can only stomach the “Rocky” theme so many times. Just like looking for karate videos and having to sit though yet another rendition of “Kung Fu Fighting.”

Of the trilogy of Gatti vs. Ward, Gatti won the last two fights and arguably the first one should have been a draw (one judge gave Ward a 10-8 round without justification). The fight I liked the best was Gatti vs. Ward 2. Here is the highlight video roughly broken up into thirds.

I really like how Gatti fights and how he judges the gap and moves his head and body. With the movement he created openings that would not have been there otherwise. He held his hands almost like one would in karate – probably due to fighting on the outside of the gap unless he was striking.

Too many fighters in MMA today do not understand how to box effectively but do understand slugging. A boxer like Gatti understood both and was a good judge of distance! An almost unbeatable combination for most boxers and MMA fighters alike. True an MMA fighter has to know kicks and the ground game to be effective but the point I am trying to make is fighters with good boxing have an advantage over many MMA sluggers.

The world has lost a great fighter in Arturo Gatti and I hope he rests in peace. 

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I don’t really know why I would be surprised that a Supermodel has martial arts (boxing) training? After all they are just people like the rest of us – that need to keep fit and want to know how to protect themselves in a pinch. I did on story entitled, “Supermodels can fight! Not just another pretty face!” last year where I highlighted Elle Macpherson, and the karate hottie, Michelle Waterson!

I found this boxing workout video of Marisa Miller training! Apparently she is an accomplished Supermodel that has appeared in Victoria’s Secret and SI’s swimsuit models issues. The thing that impresses me more that her being a successful model, is that she has taken up one of the hardest martial arts out there. I remember back to when I was training in boxing for full contact fights. Boxing has killer workouts demanding superior upper-body strength and  coordination!

In this post I will examine boxing training for women and why I think boxing is an ideal fighting method for women from a self-defense and fitness standpoint. Here is a video of Marisa Miller doing a boxing workout for your perusal.

I do not know if Marisa will ever do rounds or if she is just trying to stay in great shape but boxing can do both! It is an ideal way of defending ones self as well as a kick butt workout! The focus of boxing is upper-body punching and is taught as other fighting arts by learning the basics, punching drills, and sparring.

Now some of you might be wondering why I, a karate instructor, would say boxing is ideal as a method of self defense? In general I like any martial art that works – that includes , boxing and wrestling, traditionally western fighting arts. When one defends ones self, he or she has to first overcome the fear of fighting and then mount a successful defense. My argument is if a woman already has boxing experience and knows how to take a hit – she will be ideally suited to overcome the fear of action and counter attack!

As far as how a woman can outbox a man, lets get real. In self-defense a person takes advantage of opportunities. Women that can throw a punch to the jaw in practice, can just as easily punch the throat among a flurry of counter attacks and get away! By the way, that is the same goal in karate! To strike and get away! Now here is some video I found of mothers and daughters taking boxing training.

Now let me emphasize that this is not Tae Bo or boxing aerobics! Yes real boxing training is an ideal way to get into shape and learn to fight! One might argue what method of fighting is best for women to take (with no clear answer) but no one can argue what these women are learning is not real.

As for getting into shape, I have never been in as good shape as those six months I was training for full contact karate! Boxing was in integral part of that training. My routine was running a couple of miles every morning and then doing a couple hour workouts each afternoon. The workouts included all of the standards, jump rope, speed bag, heavy bag, drills, and sparring. I was one giant sore and had to streach and warm up to feel human and then I could work out again! I have the utmost respect for anyone that can get through these workouts.

So If you are a mother or daughter trying to find a type of workout that is tried an proven but will also teach you some self defense skills – I believe you do not have to look any further than boxing! If supermodels can do it – you can too!

CNN posted a story about Group Boxing Classes here!

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Beer muscle is what I use to call people in the bar’s that had a few beers and got really brave. They would fight if provoked, easily! As a bouncer in my young days, I would have to break up fights in the bar. I noticed that many of the aggressive “beer muscle” combatants could not fight their way out of a paper bag!

I would ask some of these combatants why they got into a fight and they would just say the A??h??? had it coming. I pointed out they could not fight and they would growl at me.

My comparison of toughman to beer muscle is fair I think, because neither the drunk bar patrons nor most of the toughman contestants were trained fighters… they just had the desire. While the toughman contest I saw generally used boxing rules – calling toughman boxing is a very loose generalization of boxing.

My opinion of toughman is that it is real fighting between untrained fighters. The lesson I can see from toughman is that having the desire to fight is only part of the battle (forgive the pun). A person that wants to fight or defend themselves should also take up a fighting discipline as a hobby and learn the ropes. It was fun to watch the “boxers” in the toughman contest run out of steam in the second round