Is Boxing a Martial Art? Everything You Need to Know

How are boxing fights scored?

When you think of martial arts, you would automatically envisage sports like kickboxing or karate, for example, but not necessarily boxing.

But why is that? Because boxing is, in fact, a form of martial arts, which is a broad term for combat, fighting, and self-defence systems.

Read on to find out why boxing is a martial art but not referred to or often thought of as one.

What is a Martial Art?

Martial arts can be described as using systems of combat practised for self-defence. The term martial arts was made popular in the 1960s and 70s by cultural icons such as Bruce Lee.

It’s because of this that martial arts conjures up images of karate and kicks, as opposed to boxing and punches. 

Some refuse to consider boxing as a martial art because of how different the sport is, limited to punches only, which is why it often stands alone, separated from other sports such as judo or wrestling, for example.

The word ‘martial’ simply means fighting or war, so really the term just means ‘fighting arts’ or ‘war arts’, so it applies to any form of combat, including boxing.

It’s best summarised as boxing is a martial art, but not your traditional martial art.

Boxing

The combat sport of boxing is not often referred to as a martial art in the same way that karate and Muay Thai is because of the very different disciplines and rules, most notably the absence of kicks.

Boxing is one of the only martial arts that forbids the use of kicks. Nearly every martial art allows the use of kicks, apart from Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrestling or judo, but they are not as stand-alone as boxing because of the grappling aspects.

Sports that consist of punching, such as MMA or Muay Thai, are still very different to boxing, mainly due to way they throw their punches. It’s evident that anyone skilled at boxing in these sports mostly throw their punches standing up tall at range, so they are not too committed to their attacks that they will fall victim to a hold, or a kick or knee attack.

When a boxer throws their punches, depending on style, most will lean to one side with the use of their hips to find a particular angle that’s not blocked by the guard or to generate plenty of torque to inject more power into the delivery. In other martial arts, this could prove a costly mistake by being over-committed and therefore vulnerable to the many other forms of attacks that can include kicks, holds and grabs.

Because of this difference, you will see many knockouts in boxing, but not near as many from punches in martial arts.

Martial Arts and their Best Fighters

Boxing is considered to be one of the oldest combat sports in history, which is perhaps why their biggest stars are the most recognisable in the world.

The list of boxing greats goes on forever and are recognisable all over the world. There isn’t anyone in the world that’s not familiar with the name, Muhammad Ali, who is regarded as the greatest sports icon of all-time.

Whilst there are some very notable names in other combat sports, they are not always as widespread around the globe as some boxers are.

That said, there can’t be many countries around the world that hasn’t heard of Conor McGregor before.

Here’s a star-studded list of the some of the most popular martial arts and their most notable names: