In sporting competitions or in real-life scenarios, brazilian jiu jitsu and boxing are both important techniques, and self-defense specialists will probably tell you to learn them simultaneously.
Also known as “the noble art”, Boxing is one of the techniques that (alongside Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) is essential to any MMA fighter. While its ancestral origins date back to the ancient Sumerian, Modern Boxing became popular, sometime around the 19th century, amongst British gentlemen and London’s ruffians alike.
Boxing focuses primarily on the exchange of frontal blows, while you and your opponent are both standing and moving around the “ring”. Both throw punches at (ideally, if you are doing everything right) a controlled distance and dodging your adversary. But when the fight ends up on the ground – which often happens in MMA sporting competitions or in situations where a self-defence technique is needed – you may find yourself quite vulnerable with only the boxer’s skills.
That’s when Jiu Jitsu came to the scene. While you can learn something about defending and throwing some basic punches in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Gracie’s technique concentrates on the twisting and grappling moviments, much more efficient in a fight at close range.
Another important difference between them is that Boxing is considered more of a sport than a martial art like BJJ. While any sports practice or MA can teach a lot about respect, discipline and focus, perhaps due to its Nippon origin, Jiu Jitsu holds these values really close to its day to day practice.
Boxing x Jiu Jitsu
Amongst the differences between those techniques, we have to consider which one is easier to learn. While any person can learn both Boxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, it is only fair to say that with a few months of boxing training you can become quite proficient – perhaps not enough to face McGregor on the UFC octagon, but well enough to handle yourself in a fight.
To really master Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – actively using your guard against your opponent, overthrowing the adversary without being taken down yourself, learning the many submission techniques, and using all the potential of leveraging your opponent’s own weight – may take you a couple of years. After that, you’ll be a formidable fighter against… well, pretty much anyone, no matter how larger or heavier.
With the British technique, you’ll, obviously, learn how to throw powerful and effective punches. But another important skill developed in Boxing is the ability to read your opponent’s moves in order to avoid his blows: by constantly moving around the ring and making quick deflections, evasions, and head moves.
However, you won’t be learning much (or anything, for that matter) about kicks or grappling techniques. Which, like we talked about before, may put you in some trouble in the ground fight or while defending yourself against a larger opponent, who can more easily overthrow you.
By another hand, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu will teach you only the basics of throwing and deflecting punches, and “distance control” won’t be a thing you’ll hear much in BJJ training. However… you’ll learn how to make “proximity” your friend and use it as an advantage.
Which one is a better workout?
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a great workout. Its warm-up drills may resemble a little what is done in some CrossFit classes or Tabata lessons (for those of you who have a passion for fitness), where you have to do as many repetitions as you can under a specific time, combined with exercises that develop localized muscles, balance and coordination. Plus, of course, the sparring.
But, if you’re looking for more intense cardio, Boxing can give you a run for it. Not only because of all the movement involved in the sparring itself, but also because it’s demanding (and long) warm-ups.
Rules of Boxing
While almost every country has its own rules for Boxing, some of those rules are pretty much the same everywhere. A Boxing competition consists of, essentially, striking the most blows in your opponent without being hiten back in order to win.
Of course, if you manage to knock out the other fighter (when a referee or a doctor or his coach determines he has no condition to care on with the fight), the victory is also yours. But you can only do so by hitting with closed fists, aimed for the front of the body, forehead and beltline. And, most importantly, there’s no fighting on the ground.
Rules of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
In that sense, BJJ is the complete opposite of Boxing. It can be fought standing (the matches always start that way), but also – and frequently – on the ground. You are considered the winner when you manage to overthrow the opponent, control his movements and submit him. You can do it through strangulations and joint locks, but no punches or kicks are allowed.
Do you want to learn new techniques of self-defence? Schedule a free trial class of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.