Which MA's best compliment Western Boxing?

[EmptyneSs]

i train in mt and western boxing at the same time. we are taught to use em together as one system. it works incredibly well, and makes your movements incredibly efficient while being able to utilze and unleash skills from both.

our school is different though. we have a variety of people to train under, at certain times and on certain days. for example,we can go to a class traiined by a savate champion., or a class trained by a muay thai kickboxer, or a boxer, or ufc/mma fighter and so on. theres one guy there that teaches street fighting/self defense type stuff in his classes too. u can go to any class you want, or stick with the ones u like best. our school is awesome.

[Tom Yum]

i train in mt and western boxing at the same time. we are taught to use em together as one system. it works incredibly well, and makes your movements incredibly efficient while being able to utilze and unleash skills from both.

That's not easy. After a while, you start to develop a preference. You either rely heavier on boxing or muay thai.

The stances are different too. Boxing fight stance is slightly crouched and springy, so that you can use your legs and bodyweight to deliver your power and your hands for speed/snap. Your gloves don't go higher than your ear level. Also boxers have a generous amount of head movement to make themselves a moving target.

Muay thai fight stance is more upright so you can kick hard with a base leg pivot/hip turnover and deliver knees quickly. The hands are held higher, above eyebrow level so you can work/defend elbows and go into the clinch. You can't use the same kind of head movement in muay thai other than slipping, otherwise you bring your head closer to the other guys kicks .

I think both arts are awesome and your lucky to be able to train in both. What is even more interesting are the cross style fights that we are able to see today in K-1.

Botha (former heavyweight WBF) clearly dominated Abidi (K-1) in a boxing vs. muay thai bout, but got DQ'd for punching Abidi while he was down. Botha closed the distance fast and just machine gunned Abidi with hooks and uppercuts downstairs and upstairs. In another bout, Botha got KO'd by Fujiyama (K-1) by a head kick that was set up by a barrage of leg kicks that made ferocious smacking noises and made his legs bruised and wobbly.

I think muaythai fighters are realizing the importance of their boxing work and being able to deal with hard punchers. Likewise, I think boxers are learning how to adapt to the muay thai game and evolve their boxing game into a more devastating fighting art.

[koto_ryu]

Personally I feel a good grappling art would be the best as well. If you're looking to compliment boxing, why do another straight striking art such as kickboxing or karate when you're already good on your feet and can punch well? Personally, wrestling is an excellent compliment to boxing in my opinion but don't learn the silly pins and other such things other wrestlers do. Learn some of the old "hooks" from back in the day, when carnivals had professional "hookers" (basically wrestlers) who would put out an ultimatum to anyone in the crowd: if you can beat me, you'll win a certain amount of money or a prize or something similar. These men were in awesome shape and had to be at the top of your game, because you never knew how big the other guy would be that you would take on nor what he knew or what he could do. They were excellent catch-as-catch-can wrestlers and developed a variety of "hooks" (submission moves) for those competitors who tried to go the distance or throw in something dirty. A good book to check out if you're interested in the subject is "KILL AS CATCH CAN: WRESTLING SKILLS FOR STREETFIGHTING" by Ned Beaumont. He's got two good boxing ones out too and if you read those and apply them to your training, you'll be in excellent shape.

[Cobra_nVidia]

I think Judo would be the best compliment. Sweeps, Throws, and Ground work.

[bodhisattva]

As a striker, I'd bare-minimum learn some "counter wrestling" skills. Now, please understand, that even as I say it, there really is no such thing as counter wrestling.

There is only wrestling.

But by counter-wrestling, I mean, learn enough wrestling to counter most of what wrestlers are going to do to you - regardless of their style. Learn to counter a hip throw.. learn to sprawl really well, REALLY WELL.. learn to pummel in the clinch.. learn how to stay on your feet against a wrestler, still finding strikes, and learn to get back to your feet, after being taken down. Bare minimum, in my opinion.

Your MT will help a lot, as you are no stranger to working in the clinch, and being brutalized. The attached striking in MT will be real helpful, too. Learn how to find strikes as you come into the clinch with a wrestler. The wrestler will probably welcome the clinch - so surprise him.

To do this, you don't even need a gym, though it would help. You just need to befriend some decent wrestlers and work out with them. Doesn't matter if they are judo, folk style, jiu-jitsu or greco roman.. Just put a head gear on them, and get permission to pound them while they try to take you down.

But a gym would be ideal. And more wrestling than the bare minimum, would also be ideal. I agree with the Judo suggestion..Of course, I like the BJJ as well.

[hanuman]

another what is the best way to fight thread?
here we go..IMO

boxing: hand skills, elbow skills, head butt skills (some people still teach old school bareknuckle boxing)

Muay Thai: knee skills, shin kick to the lower legs

wrestling: ground work

these three arts and your the man...no need to learn all these "secret techniques and ancient styles or what have you"...you can do alot with just a little

my two cents

[academian]

another what is the best way to fight thread?
here we go..IMO

boxing: hand skills, elbow skills, head butt skills (some people still teach old school bareknuckle boxing)

Muay Thai: knee skills, shin kick to the lower legs

wrestling: ground work

these three arts and your the man...no need to learn all these "secret techniques and ancient styles or what have you"...you can do alot with just a little

my two cents

And You can find it all at http://www.fightingsecrets.com

[Blue Wave Gym]

Trapping Laughable

If trapping is effective why hasn't it been done in mma fights?

Here's how I developed: karate(load of crap) when I was a kid, then traditional tkd(load of crap belt selling garbage) and oylimpic style tkd(at least you were allowed to ko people but little street aplication), then american kickboxing, it's great learing to get hit and punch properly, boxers make good sparring partners, a little judo and japanese jui-jitsu,then MMA.
If I were to create the ultimate art: Boxing for puching, them bjj and wrestling for the ground(maybe some judo for throwing) component, then muay thai for leg kicks, knees,elbows, ect.
then some type of military or prision based knife fighting system.

[HtTKar]

If I were to create the ultimate art: Boxing for puching, them bjj and wrestling for the ground(maybe some judo for throwing) component, then muay thai for leg kicks, knees,elbows, ect.
then some type of military or prision based knife fighting system.

That would work
sad thing is that most complete martial arts should train all this anyway. Seldom does that happen, but if you find an instructor enthusiastic enough to teach all ranges and weaponry, all this could be found in almost any complete martial art. Honestly though, I'd still add boxing for hand skills, and stickfighting of anykind for tenacity.

[Tant01]

If trapping is effective why hasn't it been done in mma fights?

.....If I were to create the ultimate art: Boxing for puching, ...
...then some type of military or prision based knife fighting system.

There is no such thing as a "prison based knife fighting system"

[Tom Yum]

I would say wrestling is probably the best suppliment to boxing.

Boxing stance is crouched allbeit not as low as a wrestlers, so there's only a little difference. You can devise a fight strategy of firing off hard punches to close the gap, then work on clinch/takedown.

[georgie]

id have to go with bruce lee's pick ....judo!! boxing is more than enough for striking and overall i think is the best martial art for streetfighting as most fights are won with punches.....judo and boxing i think are almost unbeatable together i think .....picture a lennox lewis with a blackbelt in judo ....scary! at least bruce lee thought this was the best overall combo...but what does he know!

[Tom Yum]

id have to go with bruce lee's pick ....judo!! boxing is more than enough for striking and overall i think is the best martial art for streetfighting as most fights are won with punches.....judo and boxing i think are almost unbeatable together i think .....picture a lennox lewis with a blackbelt in judo ....scary! at least bruce lee thought this was the best overall combo...but what does he know!

There have been some MMA greats with boxing and grappling backgrounds, but not necessarily judo.

Don Frye - Former golden gloves boxer, collegiate wrestler.

That young Brazillian guy who KO'd tank (I know, I know....can't think of the name) who was also concurrently training in golden gloves and also a highly ranked BJJ.

[ddrive]

id have to go with bruce lee's pick ....judo!! boxing is more than enough for striking and overall i think is the best martial art for streetfighting as most fights are won with punches.....judo and boxing i think are almost unbeatable together i think .....picture a lennox lewis with a blackbelt in judo ....scary! at least bruce lee thought this was the best overall combo...but what does he know!

He also said to beat any martial artist that's been training for 15 years, all you need is 1 year of boxing and wrestling!

[ddrive]

There have been some MMA greats with boxing and grappling backgrounds, but not necessarily judo.

Don Frye - Former golden gloves boxer, collegiate wrestler.

That young Brazillian guy who KO'd tank (I know, I know....can't think of the name) who was also concurrently training in golden gloves and also a highly ranked BJJ.

You might be talking about Vitor Belfort. If he's training harder in boxing, that will really help his endurance.