Championship Streetfighting: Boxing As A Martial Art

Overall, an excellent book on many levels. Beaumont is realistic about streetfighting in a way that you rarely get in a book with “martial art” in the title, and he bridges the gap between the historical and the practical in relation fighting in a way that is ingenious for all of his somewhat gruff fighter’s tone in writing. The boxing history is amazing and anecdotes are used to not just as filler, but to illustrate the points about fighting, principles, or techniques, that he is writing on. As someone who has trained in many martial arts, including combat sports like Muay Thai and street practical arts like Eskrima and Hawaiian Kenpo, I enjoyed his style. I teach much of what he writes about, and I haven’t seen all of it in a book, and certainly not explained as well.I do have problems with some of his claims about boxing and history, such as the jab originated in the 18th century and that ancient boxers as found in Egypt, Rome, and Greece just threw big looping punches. There is no evidence for such claims. His characterizations of martial arts, particularly of the “strip mall” variety are sometimes very accurate and worthwhile to mention, but there is a tendency to lump all martial arts together, and this is extremely problematic. I think this may just be a product of the time period in which he wrote this book, where practical fighting arts among martial arts were much more rare in America (it was first published in 1977).This is a quote that I think is representative of his writing style, and that I actually enjoyed: “Kung Fu and most other martial arts teach effective [sometimes] techniques that would be fouls in a ring, but all the tiger claws, scorpion hands, and chicken necks of the Oriental ‘masters’ won’t work as well in a real fight as will one rabbit punch.” (Beaumont 139) A rabbit punch in a punch to the back of your opponent's neck (seventh vertebra, neck itself, or the base of the skull). This is a move we use often in Hawaiian Kenpo (CHA-3, a cousin of Kajukenbo), and it is extremely effective (though potentially deadly).I'm thinking of copying the pages on infighting (my personal favorite range to fight at) and giving them to my students. I teach everything in them through motion, drills, etc., but Beaumont does a great job of breaking everything down, and I think it will be useful to help students understand infighting in a way few guys training in martial arts or MMA do.Actually, I'm thinking of getting as many people I know who train seriously to buy the book, from students to instructors. It has so much useful information in it, from the solid infighting I mentioned above, to solid boxing, to "illegal" strikes like hammer fists, my favorite equalizer of elbows, headbutts, throws, "fouls", setting up a training regimen in the gym or at home, practical street fighting advice based on examples from the greatest boxers in the past, etc. that I can't help but recommend it. I have been taught and have taught many of these things over the decades in have been involved in martial arts, combat sports, and fighting, but I really haven't seen them all gathered together in such a way.

This is a great book . I started Karate in 1971 . I’m from a small town so they had One boxing club and one karate club . Hardly anyone knew about Karate and my INSTUCTOR was a street fighter also so he taught us Korean Karate which was mostly using our legs . I was young 18 and I was small 5 foot 7 and weighed about 145 . My instructor drilled in us the importance of being in great shape so he trained us like boxers . By the way he himself was a boxer. I believed what he told us and taught us. Through the years I used my kicks and my speed and my endurance to help me survive street fights . Now I m an old man and can barely walk much less kick so the last 10 years I’ve got into basic weapons training like Pocket knife , kuboton , cane , mace ink pen and I just got into learning about guns . If I could do it all over again I would have definitely join the Karate club and the Boxing club and lifted weights. I’ve had to learn the hard way that I m not invincible neither is my karate. I was very Naive when I was 18 and started my Martal Arts Journey.Im very grateful for my instructor and my classmates . We were very close and still are some 50 years later . I’ve heard my whole life that when u get older u get wiser . I no longer think I’m invincible that is why I m learning about firearms. Thank you for ur book Mr Beaumont. I wish I would have read it in 1971 . LOL

It seems the only reason the author wrote this book was to show how boxing is the best style. It should of been named "Why boxing is the Best". He writes the book through his own hang ups. At one point he points out that he is indeed prejiduced, although that doesn't let him off the hook. If only he would know that the majority of people that are honestly interested in self-defense these days approach the different styles of fighting as being only certain parts to the totality of combat and the most efficient way of fighting is to learn all of them.The book is very informative and it would definately be a useful addition to any martial artists library although it is definately not the "end all be all" book of fighting.At one point he gives props to Bruce Lee and his book "Tao of Jeet Kune Do" He does, however point out that 1/3 of this book is "half-baked philosophy". It would do him good to listen to this "half-baked philosophy" because it might cause him to throw away his prejiduces and see combat and life in a new, refreshing way.However, there are a few things I did like about this book and those are 1. Ned Bueamont seems to know his subject material very well and it appears as though he has been in many streefights. 2. I like how he emphasizes "controlled agressivness" throughout the book. 3. Boxing is indeed a very useful way of streefighting and Ned represented the techniques, methods, and ways of using it nicely, although he did go a little overboard to convince the reader that boxing is the "end all be all" way of fighting.Hopefully the knowledgable reader can take what he needs from this book and regard the rest.

This is among my all time favourite books on self protection.I've long been a fan of boxing for a self protection role, ever since an ex-army mate of mine after a minor scuffle said to me *not an exact quote*"if you want to learn to fight, find yourself a decent boxing gym".I'm not saying boxing is perfect, it does have more than its share of limitations and certainly doesn't cover everything, but it'll give you a great deal of useful skills and certainly fits the role better than an awful lot of other martial art clubs or "experts" out there.Ned Beaumont has written an excellent book on adapting boxing from a sport to a self protection role. He covers everything from attitude to tactics to the differences between punching with a bare fist or a gloved fist to correct body mechanics. He is obviously someone who's been around the block a few times and speaks from a degree of experience unlike other idiots who will talk tough but probably haven't been in a fight in their lives.The bottom line is that being on the receiving end of violence is a horrible, traumatic, cold and lonely experience. Not the glorious tussle that some make out and certainly not the romantic notion that some seem to have."Ask the experienced, rather than the learned"- Arab quote.I'm very happy to recommend this book.

could do with a few more pictures as examples

author of this book does talk a lot of common sense, regarding useing boxing as street defence,for example, useing the bottom 3 knuckles and a vertical fist to strike with, as opposed to useing a horizontal hand as boxers do when wearing gloves or hand wraps,or strikeing with the first two knuckles of the hand as is sometimes advocated in some martial art styles such as karate,bruce lee also advocated useing the bottom 3 knuckles useing a vertical fist when strikeing bare handed,author also goes in to great detail about efective punching machanics, fitness for the boxer, stance,and everything conected with makeing you a effective street boxer,diagrahams though are verry few and incredably basic crude line drawings, i would recomend purchaseing this book with boxings ten comandments by ALAN lacia with contains hundreds of photographs of punching sparing techniques which are admitadly for ring boxers but the principles are the same ring or street just make a few minor ajustments for the street ..this book tells you how to do that,,i would also recomend THE BARE KNUCKLE BOXERS COMPANION by david lindholm and ulf karlson which contains many photographs of bare knuckle boxing techniques....THIS BOOK IS A MUST BUY BUT PURCHASE AS AN ACOMPANYMENT TO A BOXING BOOK WITH PHOTOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES AND YOU WILL NOT BE DISSAPOINTED

Das Buch ist an sich solide geschrieben, der Autor gibt eine gute Einsicht und Überblick über Boxen allgemein und die speziellen Anforderungen an Boxen als "Selbstverteidigung" auf der Straße.Und mit der Erwähnung der Unterschiede zwischen klass. olympischen Boxen und auf der Straße ist auch die Stärke dieses Buches gegeben - leider aber auch erschöpft.Es folgt ein (aus meiner Sicht) zu großer Abriss über die "alten Meister" des Boxen; die Kritik an anderen Kampfsport-Arten bzw. Kampfkünsten/Selbstverteidungs-Systmen ist teilweise sehr überzogen und arrogant - eine etwas offenere bzw. objektivere Auseinandersetzung wäre besser gewesen.Alles andere was dieses Buch bietet d.h. wie Schlage ich richtig (Jab, Cross, Hook, Uppercut), Körperdynamik (Hüfte einsetzen bzw. vor dem Schlagen "aufspannen") und Timing, Distanz etc. machen andere Bücher besser d.h. detailierter und umfangreicher und mit besserem Bildmaterial.An sich kein schlechtes Buch, vor allem für Einsteiger und an der Geschichte des Boxen Interessierte, aber bei weitem kein Standardwerk und im Vergleich mit anderen ähnlich gelagerten Büchern (z.B.: die Serie von Mark Hatmaker) zu schwach.mein Tip ... wenn möglich die günstigere Kindle-Variante wählen oder gebraucht kaufen.

it's an awesome book with plenty of tips on boxe and streetfights, the bibliography is also remarkable !A must for every boxe or martial art enthusiast!