How to Turn Boxing into Effective Streetfighting

Bareknuckle Jabbing

Boxing is often ignored as an effective martial art, but it stands as a practice as old as ancient Greece. Its virtues are praised by none other Bruce Lee and it has served as a core influence on the Israeli mixed martial art of Krav Maga. With just a few simple changes, boxing can be turned from a sport into an effective streetfighting technique.

Things You'll Need

• Prior training in boxing
• Punching bag
• Facesaver headgear optional

Instructions

1. Understand basic principles. Boxing is a style based around using the feet for movement and to generate power for striking with the hands. The hands, however, are a collection of small bones, while the human skull is the hardest bone in the human body is the skull. As any boxer or bareknuckle brawler can tell you, boxing gloves are there to protect the hands, not to protect the other guy’s face. Pouring bareknuckle power-punches onto the skull may stop your opponent, but it will definitely break the bones in your hands. Converting boxing into effective streetfighting encourages the surgical use of power punching to preserve the hands.

2. Train your hands. Given the fragility of the hands, bareknuckle punching requires training to build them up. There are two ways to do this in the existing boxing workout: 1) if you are not already, start doing your push-ups on your knuckles, not the flats of the palm; 2) take off the hand wraps and bag gloves, and do your bag work wearing ordinary work gloves. Initially your wrists and hands will not be strong enough to sustain the pounding, so introduce these strengthening changes into some sets and rounds, building up to encompass the entire workout.

3. Use the jab. There is a famous story that when G. Gordon Liddy was jailed for his role in Watergate, he made the classic movie of picking a lunchroom fight with the toughest looking guy he could find. He fought by using the space to move side-to-side, and stuck his jab. If you have room to move, this is exactly what a boxer-turned-streetfighter should do.The jab is not hard enough to break bones in your hands, but it is hard enough to bust up your opponent’s face. Stay safe on the outside and stick the jab, using power punches only when you are sure you can safely hit a soft spot.

4. 

   Incorporate uppercuts. If you cannot stay away from your opponent, use the uppercut. The angle of the uppercut is such that you are unlikely to hit the hard parts of the skull. If you miss the jaw, you will either smash the nose or hit empty air. Also, the uppercut is good for digging under the ribcage on body shots, and does so better without that big glove.

5. Thumb the eye. After you jab, put your thumb in the opponent’s eye. No need to gouge when merely dragging the thumb over the eye will make even the most aggressive attacker cover up or back off.

6. Punch the throat. Unlike the skull, the throat is a soft target, but you should only jab at it. A good right cross on the throat will crush it, killing your opponent.

7. Use your elbows. Unlike your hands, your elbows are hard and sharp. One effective foul is to follow the left hook by doubling up with the left elbow. Also, if your opponent comes in through your jab, throw the right elbow at him. Done properly, will have most of the overhand right, but will land with the elbow’s bony knob instead of your fragile knuckles.

8. 

   Catch with the forehead. Although it sounds counter-intuitive, you can turn the strength of a hard head to your advantage. My first coach also taught us that when fighting from a crouch, to catch punches with the forehead, because it hurts the opponent’s hands. With boxing gloves and that thick, amateur headgear pad on the forehead, this tactic usually just produces sore hands. Bareknuckles meeting the bare forehead will break bones in the hand. Practice this in regular sparring by doing a round or two where your sparring partner jabs at your head, and you try to catch with your forehead.

Tips & Warnings

• Some of these techniques can seriously injure, maim, or even kill an opponent. They should only be used in self-defense and in extreme circumstances.