Boxing is a highly effective method of protection for the streets.

Boxers are the best strikers and have the most lethal fists of any fighting styles.

When two fighters are equal in skills, it’s almost always striking that decides who is victorious.

Boxing for the street is much easier to learn than martial arts as there are basically only 3 punches, rather than potentially a whole host of techniques.

And that’s why boxers are feared on the streets because the most effective fighters rely on just a couple of strikes that work almost every time for them.

Boxing is still the most effective combat for racking up fight ending knockouts.

Let me take you through some tips on boxing for the street.

1. Guard your personal space

To protect your personal space before a fight starts create a boundary..

Boundaries can be set and maintained by using non-physical or “soft” skills, particularly through communication skills.

Range dictates a lot and unless you are armed in some way, the maximum distance you will be given at the beginning of a physical altercation is limited by the length of your arms.

Quite simply the gesture of raising your hands – and this should be done in a way that does not insinuate your combative intentions – presents another human with a social barrier.

Only a person wanting to become physical will try to breach this barrier. Once they attempt to do this you have your signal to act or pre-empt them with a strike.

A hard ram rod style jab works best, if you are attacked first and want to keep your attacker at distance.

2. Don’t Wait To Be Attacked

Setting a barrier provides an individual with the opportunity to pre-empt their attacker.

Meaning to strike first!

Pre-emption is a consistently effective combat technique.

At conversational range, approximately one arm’s length or closer, action usually beats reaction.

Which is why so many people get head butted because they let the aggressor breach their personal space.

When an aggressor moves forward and tries to breach your boundary then hit first and hit hard with a right cross – the big weapon in boxing, aim at the head the most damaging area to target, this will also force the aggressor to protect rather than attack!

3.  Keep Up The Pressure

If someone attempts to assault you, you must meet force with force!

You attack the attack and keep going forward until you can escape or the threat is no more.

Once you have applied a pre-emptive strike keep the pressure on with your attack firing straight one-two punches.

4. Take Cover

Mistakes can happen in a fight and you could find yourself on the receiving end of a beating.

If you are caught off guard or attacked by surprise then it’s important to regain the initiative in these situations as soon as possible.

Block or cover your attacker’s strikes by tucking your elbows into your side to defend your body and hanging your hands by the side of your head to protect your face.

You need to keep mobile to be able to stop as many strikes as possible rather than curling up in a ball and being a static target.

Ensure you can see through your cover so you can quickly turn defense into attack as quickly as possible.

5. Never Fight Fair

Boxing on the streets is very different to boxing in a ring – where there are rules.  Boxing on the street there are no rules other than to survive and there are many dirty boxing techniques that can help you win a fight.

These are very effective and can physically and mentally weaken your attacker and open the door to safety.  Here are some of the dirty boxing techniques that can be very effective and difficult to defend against:

• Use your head to knock your open off balance or knock him out
• Tie up your attackers arms, control him and let your punches go.
• Thrust your knee into his thigh or ribs when you have tied your opponent up.
• Follow through with your elbows on your punches to cause cuts and maximum damage.
• Tie your opponent up and use your elbows and shoulders to force your opponent back and knock the fight out of him.
• Crank your opponent’s neck with a slight twist from an illegal headlock.

6. Don’t Go To Ground

You may end up grappling with your attacker and this can often lead to the fight ending up on the ground especially if you are fighting in an open space.

This is a very bad place to be, it leaves you vulnerable to multiple attackers joining in the fight which is very hard to defend against.

Which is why you need to be able to train to get back to your feet as quickly as possible.

A fight can occur at any time and can go to any range, so you need to practice your skills from any range and situation.

Train your punches from off your knees, seated and off your back.

And also defending from these positions is very important too.

If you face a grappler it’s also very good to have the “sprawl” technique in your locker to stop the grappler from taking you down to his preferred range of fighting on the ground.

I hope you find these street boxing tips really useful.

Lance Lewis world champion and legendary fighter has put together a great boxing for the street program that will help anyone develop elite level street boxing skills.