Why does boxing get called simple?

[judojeff]

Ask your instructor and then practice.
Practice grip fighting, off balancing, timing, transitioning from striking to clinching, striking within the clinch, moving your opponent. There is a tonne of stuff to do in Judo other than learning many throws.

Boxing as a sport is very simple, it has a jab, straight, hook and uppercut. That however is called punching, boxing is everything else.

After reading the above post* in a thread about adding judo to karate, I realized that I seem to here the whole "boxing is simple" statement more often then I should. I have never boxed myself but I would hardly qualify it as simple, understanding timing and distance as well as movement and a host of other factors makes boxing just as complicated as any other striking art.

Simply because boxing deals specificaly with punches does not make it simple, just because boxing does not name a 60 technique syllabus does not make it simple. Honestly I just don't understand how it came to be that boxing has been labeled this way.

*I do not believe that honest_truth thinks boxing is simple nor is this meant to be argumentative or an attack on him/her.

[Eudemic]

I'd be willing to venture that most of the people who honestly believe that boxing is simple aren't any more aware of the training (and the thought that goes into the training) than the 'Rocky' films would make anyone else. They see two beefy professionals get in a ring and slug it out, not looking for anything subtle in it and not caring what happens before or after.

And even fewer people give any kind of thought to the history of the sport. . .

[Mr. Machette]

Mt guess is they are ignorant to the underlying strategies and nuances of the game.

[gregaquaman]

Like a lot of things. It is as simple as the guy you are fighting.

[Eudemic]

Like a lot of things. It is as simple as the guy you are fighting.

Very well put.

[jdempsey]

Insecurities.

they are just repeating something they heard from someone who they believe knows what they're on about, usually a TMA instructor/imposter.

Deep down inside they know their shit don't work and need to put down a respected art whilst building up their own , or at least putting themselves in the same league.

[BJMills]

I think it's akin to people thinking the ground game in MMA is just a couple of dudes (or chicks nowadays) rolling around together without much skill. If you know nothing about grappling it probably looks that way even between 2 high level competitors.

[It is Fake]

*I do not believe that honest_truth thinks boxing is simple nor is this meant to be argumentative or an attack on him/her.

Honestly? You took that post out of context. The OP of that thread, where you took this quote, implied that adding throws from judo to Karate would be easy. IMO, honest_truth is saying yeah punching is easy, but everything else like this:
Footwork
Timing
Bobbing and Weaving
Ring Generalship
Cardio
Pacing
Mindset
Is what makes punching the art of boxing and it isn't simple. He wrote that poorly especially when the context is missing.

[Lindz]

Boxing has a really simple premise but infinite variation.

[honest_truth]

My point has flown over your head.

I am saying that the offensive premise of boxing is very simple because there are only so many punching techniques you can do, and yet a whole sport was created around it because of everything else that needs to be learned and practised besides just punching.

That thread's OP was asking what Judo throws to add to his karate and listed 7 he already practices, I told him to concentrate on grip fighting and timing over learning more techniques.

[atheistmantis]

I can only reply with a statement of bullshit. Boxing is very complex in and of itself. Anyone schooled in the art knows that there are so many subtleties to boxing. Just look at Floyd Mayweather and other technicians of the game. If you can't see what they do, you don't appreciate the game/art.

[Lv1Sierpinski]

Some will decry this, but from a semantics standpoint I would say that boxing is simple, in the sense that on the MA scale it's simpler than many other arts (fewer rules, fewer techniques to learn).

Simple does not equal Easy
Simple does not equal Ineffective
Simple does not equal Doesn't Require Skill
Simple does not equal Not Difficult to Perform
Simple equals Not Difficult to Comprehend

Darts and bowling are simple too...doesn't mean a 9-dart finish or 300 game happen all the time.

Anyone who thinks the reverse of my list either has no idea, or is insecure about how their MA stacks up, hence the derision.

Though judojeff, I'm not sure why you care?

[It is Fake]

We will disagree on the rules thing. Boxing rules can be just as over complicated as any MA.

[DerAuslander]

Boxing is simple.

[W. Rabbit]

Boxing is simple.

Deceptively.