COMBAT EFFICIENCY OF BOXERS AND KUNGFU MASTERS
A scene with the boxer Twister fighting against Ip Man, portrayed by Darren Shahlavi and Donnie Yen respectively, in Wilson Yip's film "Ip Man 2"
Question
In the film "Ip Man 2" a fight between a boxer named Twister and Ip Man is a very closely contested affair. Did the film makers portray a plausible scenario? By this I mean could the combat efficiency of a skilled boxer nearly equal that of a very highly skilled Wing Choon Kung Fu master such as Ip Man?
-- Kewin
Answer
My opinion is that the scenario portrayed in the film was not plausible. In the film Ip Man successfully fought through an ambush of many armed assailants out to take his life. Not only he saved himself, he also saved his student who was far less skillful. With this level of skills, Ip Man in the film could easily beat the boxer.
There is no doubt that a top boxer is very formidable fighter fighting within his Boxing rules. However, if there are no rules as in a real fight, a skilled boxer would be no match against a highly skilled Wing Choon master or a master of any kungfu style.
Even if Boxing rules were followed, which would place kungfu masters in a huge handicap, they could beat skilled Boxers readily. Indeed, this actually happened in China in the early 1900s when kungfu masters like Huo Yun Jia and Wang Zi Ping convincingly beat foreign Boxers by a huge margin.
There simply is a huge gap in combat potentials between kungfu, which is a life-death fighting art, and Boxing, which is a sport protected by many safety rules. A boxer’s techniques are severely limited only to strikes to the body and parrying with the hands, whereas a kungfu practitioner has a range of techniques that boxers may not even imagine to be possible.
Even if a kungfu practitioner has to put on gloves and follow Boxing rules, he still has a bigger range of attack and defence techniques than a boxer by a huge margin. Hence, it is a blantant excuse to the initiated when some kungfu practitioners say that they could not fight if they put on gloves.
The fact is that even without the boxing gloves these kungfu practitioners could not fight because their training is only on solo demonstration and never on combat. If they have had kungfu combat training, they would be able to fight even when putting on boxing gloves would have much reduced their fighting potential.
Choy-Li-Fatt Kungfu is particularly effective in this respect. If all other factors were equal, a Choy-Li-Fatt practitioner would be more combat efficient than practitioners of all other martial arts -- with or without gloves. This is because of the wide range of Choy-Li-Fatt techniques for boxing-style fighting.
In other words, if both combatants have equal force, speed and fighting experience, the one using Choy-Li-Fatt techniques would have a bigger advantage in winning than the other using any other martial art! If the Choy-Li-Fatt practitioner loses the combat, it is not because of his techniques or boxing gloves he has to wear, but because of his speed, force, fighting experience or other factors.
One of the main objectives of the Choy-Li-Fatt course in the Winter Camp of January 2012 is to realize this special feature of Choy-Li-Fatt in combat -- with or without gloves, and with or without abiding by Boxing rules.
-- Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit
Choy-Li-Fatt Kungfu is very effective for combat -- with or without gloves
The above is reproduced from the thread 20 Questions for Grandmaster: Choy-Li-Fatt and Kungfu against Other Styles in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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