Both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Perhaps no other martial art is refined for punches as boxing. Boxing is all about that and boxers are very good at punching and knocking their opponent out. BUT
Lack any sort of ground game. If the boxer is taken down he/she will find themselves in a difficult situation.
BJJ is all about the ground game. Almost has no standup. Can be useful under the right circumstances, but most people agree that the ground is not the place you want to end up in a fight.
So...
It's like comparing apples to oranges. They are so different and have advantages and disadvantages. I don't believe one is better than the other.
If there is more than 1 person attacking you then boxing would be the better choice. Grappling as a principal isn't designed for anything beyond one-on-one competition on the ground. The reason for this is, while you are on the ground working your game on one of the attackers, the rest will just start to pummel you. It's impossible to grapple more than one person at a time.
At least the boxer has the chance that they might score a big enough hit on one attacker that they might create enough of a window to run away.
Either way, real life isn't like the movies. There aren't a lot of people on the planet who are going to be capable of defeating more than one opponent in a no-hold-barred street fight without a weapon. I'd wager that in most situations even the strongest fighter on the planet is still going to lose against any more than 3 fully grown men, unless they are all weaklings. That's just the nature of the game.
The best defense against multiple attackers is the 'run like hell and scream like a little girl' defense. Might not be too manly, but it'll save your butt more often than either boxing or BJJ.
Now one-on-one in a no-holds-barred match where there are no weapons, and given an equal amount of training, and equal weight and strength distribution, BJJ guy wins 90% of the time.
When there is more than 1 person attacking you, the best self defense would be to run away as fast as you can, failing which boxing would put you in an infinitely better position than BJJ.
However, in a case of multiple attackers against one a system like Bagua which emphasizes positioning would probably be best, maybe not to achieve full victory (quite out of the question if you are severely outnumbered), but to mix it up long enough to find a way to escape.
All these Martial arts suggestions in the above listed answers are all good answers and I would not in anyway of course try to talk you out of doing it, I have taken martial arts classes for a while mainly for the excercise though.
I have one problem with it, all these take time to learn and master along with Much Practice,
But what in the meantime?
My Suggestion ? I have a carry & Conceal permit, while on the Street I carry a Tarus Judge
It is a 5 shot Revolver that fires a 410 slug shotgun shell OR a .45 Long Colt OR a.454 Casull Round.
It is devastating. see it here, I own one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_Judg...
out of all the other types of martial arts karate and other traditional Japanese fighting arts have to be the worst. They are called artistic but if you want something functional either take MMA classes, or I'd also recommend: Krav Maga and if none of those work for you boxing is alright aswell but not as good a choice as the others .
I take both and krav maga. For self defense you want Krav maga. All three are a lethal mix and no matter the circumstances you'd come out on top but if you just want to focus on one art then Krav maga is what you want, it's completely focused on self defense. It's the martial art used by the israeli military.
Of the two, properly taught, BJJ.
BJJ is a martial art first and foremost.
boxing is, and was a sport.
Sports are never the best martial arts. Not football, or MMA.
Martial arts are not sporting, they all "cheat" in order to survive.
Is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or boxing better for self-defense? Ideally, I would like to know what is best for a worse case situation, where there is more than one person attacking you.
