Muay Thai or boxing as a striking base ?

[GoatArtemLobov]

If you could just train one of those arts and if you were fighting at the top level (UFC-Bellator-One)?
I would say boxing because muay thai guys rely very much on the big gloves to protect themselves. They almost don't move and and never slip punches, whereas in boxing, you work on proper footwork and head movement.
Of course, you miss the kicks and knees and elbows (although elbows aren't that hard to land if you are a boxer who understands proper hook mechanics...). But you won't stand upright, with 4oz gloves to protect your face, without moving, waiting for a wrestler to shoot on you.
What are your thoughts on that?

 

[DatSamboKid]

The martial art that includes kicks, elbows, knees, clinching and sweeps.

Thai boxing is so underrated nowadays, let me introduce you to Somrak Khamsing:



Another gem, this is high level thai boxing:



A last one to remind you why the art of 8 limbs is king:

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

If you could just train one of those arts and if you were fighting at the top level (UFC-Bellator-One)?
I would say boxing because muay thai guys rely very much on the big gloves to protect themselves. They almost don't move and and never slip punches, whereas in boxing, you work on proper footwork and head movement.
Of course, you miss the kicks and knees and elbows (although elbows aren't that hard to land if you are a boxer who understands proper hook mechanics...). But you won't stand upright, with 4oz gloves to protect your face, without moving, waiting for a wrestler to shoot on you.
What are your thoughts on that?

I’ve seen incredible success in mma with Both. Anderson Silva did some work with Muay Thai in mma that was just incredibly dominant.

I think if you had to pick ONE, it would be boxing, because I think every fighter should know boxing fundamentals regardless of their fighting style.

 

[Draxton]

Easily Muay Thai. How many top level UFC guy do you see relying solely on punches and defending punches? You need to learn those knees, kicks and defense from them also.

 

[kpoz12]

Gracie Jiu jitsu

 

[Prince Nephilim]

Muay Thai all day. Which I actually went with. Coming from a Kung Fu back ground, I love and prefer having versatility of strikes

 

[Dreyga Hates You Sherbums]

Kickboxing or point karate

 

[GoatArtemLobov]

The martial art that includes kicks, elbows, knees, clinching and sweeps.

Considering your avatar, I guess you are biased bro
No seriously, you have a point arguing mt is a more diverse martial art.
But so many things don't translate at all to mma.
MT guys don't know how to defend punches. They just keep their big gloves up. I get this is enough to fight in mt where big gloves are allowed, but how are you going to do that with 4oz gloves. You can't just stand flatfooted with your hand up and no head movement.
Moreover, they don't move a lot, making it easy for a wrestler to shoot. Proper footwork is a wrestler's enemey, so in that regard, boxing is way superior.
Edit: ok these guys are amazing, but, in genral, you don't see a lot of footwork or head movement compared to boxing, and it's not even close.

 

[Orochimaru 大蛇丸]

BOXING

Muay Thai has so much shit that doesn't work in MMA... just watch MMA... there's a reason you don't see a huge amount of kicks, knees, elbows, and clinch sweeps thrown... Boxing is KING in MMA. Of course, you still have to do some Muay Thai, but you see guys boxing predominantly because wrestling makes a lot of that Muay Thai shit too dangerous to try.

 

[GoatArtemLobov]

Easily Muay Thai. How many top level UFC guy do you see relying solely on punches and defending punches? You need to learn those knees, kicks and defense from them also.

Stiopic, Conor, Diaz bros, Holloway, Garbrandt for the guys who are manily strikers.
Now, if you take the wrestlers, there are tons of them (Khabib, Cejudo etc.)
The fact that the boxing stance is almost identical to the wrestling stance is an other argument in favor of boxing btw.

 

[Orochimaru 大蛇丸]

Easily Muay Thai. How many top level UFC guy do you see relying solely on punches and defending punches? You need to learn those knees, kicks and defense from them also.

Most throw kicks, and knees very sparingly... you can't do 100% boxing, but Boxing dominates the sport...

 

[DatSamboKid]

Considering your avatar, I guess you are biased bro
No seriously, you have a point arguing mt is a more diverse martial art.
But so many things don't translate at all to mma.
MT guys don't know how to defend punches. They just keep their big gloves up. I get this is enough to fight in mt where big gloves are allowed, but how are you going to do that with 4oz gloves. You can't just stand flatfooted with your hand up and no head movement.
Moreover, they don't move a lot, making it easy for a wrestler to shoot. Proper footwork is a wrestler's enemey, so in that regard, boxing is way superior.
Edit: ok these guys are amazing, but, in genral, you don't see a lot of footwork or head movement compared to boxing, and it's not even close.

You unfortunately don't know what you're talking about my man.
Boxing has it's own styles and defensive tactics. American, English, Mexican, Cuban, Eastern Europe, Russian.
The flashy head movement your talking about is American style boxing.
Have you ever seen two Mexican style fighters throw down?
This flat footed, not knowing how to defend punches is one of the biggest myths in Muay Thai.
The reason why Thai fighters don't have the best hands is because it's easily nullified by kicks and clinching.

 

[GoatArtemLobov]

BOXING
Muay Thai has so much shit that doesn't work in MMA... just watch MMA... there's a reason you don't see a huge amount of kicks, knees, elbows, and clinch sweeps thrown... Boxing is KING in MMA. Of course, you still have to do some Muay Thai, but you see guys boxing predominantly because wrestling makes a lot of that Muay Thai shit too dangerous to try.

This.
90% of boxing transfers directly to mma (well you just have to square your stance a little bit and forget about bobbing and weaving), whereas a large amount of mt attacks are super dangerous to throw, especially with beast wrestlers just waiting to take you down and gnping the living shit outta you.
Punches are the number weapon and the first thing to look for in an mma fight, and, guess what, mt guys' punching knowledge is (in most cases) as elementary as it gets.

For the mt advocates, don't get me wrong, I know mt guys would win against boxers in a pure striking contest with big gloves in most cases. With small gloves, there would be already less ones. But in mma, with all that wrestling and the small gloves, boxing is better imo.
Mt is to striking what pure bjj is to grappling, and boxing is to striking what wrestling is to grappling.

 

[DatSamboKid]

This.
90% of boxing transfers directly to mma (well you just have to square your stance a little bit and forget about bobbing and weaving), whereas a large amount of mt attacks are super dangerous to throw, especially with beast wrestlers just waiting to take you down and gnping the living shit outta you.
Punches are the number weapon and the first thing to look for in an mma fight, and, guess what, mt guys' punching knowledge is (in most cases) as elementary as it gets.

For the mt advocates, don't get me wrong, I know mt guys would win against boxers in a pure striking contest with big gloves in most cases. With small gloves, there would be already less ones. But in mma, with all that wrestling and the small gloves, boxing is better imo.
Mt is to striking what pure bjj is to grappling, and boxing is to striking what wrestling is to grappling.

You're beating a dead horse here.
The question was Muay Thai or Boxing as a striking base.
This is not a debate, if you have one base to choose from, it's the sport that teaches you how to throw/defend kicks, hands, knees, elbows and clinching. This is what is going to translate by far the most in an MMA fight, more than simply knowing how to throw hands. You're overthinking the whole stance and defence approach to Muay Thai, were talking about striking base here. Why couldn't fighter A with a Muay Thai striking base know as much grappling as striker B with a boxing base? Are you arguing that if you have two fighters with the same amount of experience in grappling, the one that only knows how to boxe is the superior fighter? I can't disagree more.
Based on the arguments your sharing, I'm 100% sure you've never competed in MMA, Boxing or Muay Thai.

 

[GoatArtemLobov]

You unfortunately don't know what you're talking about my man.
Boxing has it's own styles and defensive tactics. American, English, Mexican, Cuban, Eastern Europe, Russian.
The flashy head movement your talking about is American style boxing.
Have you ever seen two Mexican style fighters throw down?
This flat footed, not knowing how to defend punches is one of the biggest myths in Muay Thai.
The reason why Thai fighters don't have the best hands is because it's easily nullified by kicks and clinching.

Bro, I don't pretend to be some striking expert, I'm not (nor as a practitioner, nor as an analyst) but stop pretending mt has as much head movement and footwork as muay thai does. The fact that a few muay thai guys use some doesn't prove anything.
Yes, the best hands are nullified in mt rules, that's to say with big gloves to hide behind and with thai clinching allowed (clinching style that btw is completely pointless in mma, unless you want to get doubled). In kickboxing, you actually already see more punches.
In a nutshell, mt guys protect themselves from good hands because of the big gloves and the clinching. As this type of clinching doesn't work well in mma and that the gloves are small, boxing>mt to me.
Honestly, what do modern mma fights look like on the feet? More like MT or boxing?

 

[OriginMMA]

Boxing is the best striking base because boxing isn’t just punching. The other striking arts teach you some very bad habits which I’m not gonna get into right now.

A good boxer with average kicks will beat a average boxer with good kicks any day imo.

 

[Dirge]

Easily Muay Thai. How many top level UFC guy do you see relying solely on punches and defending punches? You need to learn those knees, kicks and defense from them also.

McGregor? The guy rarely throws kicks.

 

[ColombianFist]

boxing for punching and footwork, MT for kicks and elbows. I've read that Dutch Kickboxing is great as a base for kicking and knees with footwork.

 

[Schaub]

MT guys don't know how to defend punches. They just keep their big gloves up. I get this is enough to fight in mt where big gloves are allowed, but how are you going to do that with 4oz gloves. You can't just stand flatfooted with your hand up and no head movement..

Watch more muay Thai

 

[Murder_KickHC]

You have to study every form of fighting like Conor Mcgregor does to be the most efficient