In the central Philippine island region of Visayas, it is known as Pangamot or Pakamot. It is also known as Mano-mano and often referred to in Western martial arts circles as Panantukan.

Although it is also called Filipino Boxing, this pertains to the Filipino martial art and should not be confused with the Western sport of boxing as practiced in the Philippines.

The term suntukan comes from the Tagalog word for punch, suntok. It is the Filipino term for a fistfight or brawl and for fist fighting or boxing. Panuntukan means “the art of fist fighting”.

The Visayan terms pangamot and pakamot (“use of hands”) come from the Cebuano word for hand, kamot. Due to Cebuano language pronunciation quirks, they are also pronounced natively as pangamut and pakamut, thus the variation of spelling across literature.

Mano-mano comes from the Spanish word for “hand”, mano, and can translate to “two hands” or “hand-to-hand”. The phrase “Mano-mano na lang, o?” (“Why don’t we settle this with fists?”) is often used to end arguments when tempers have flared in Philippine male society.

Panuntukan (often erroneously referred to as panantukan by Western practitioners due to the way Americans pronounce the letter a) this is a corruption of tagalog word panuntukan, an alternative form of pangsuntukan which means “for the use of fist fighting”.

Panantukan is generally attributed to the empty hands and boxing system infused by FMA pioneers Johnny LaCosta, Leodoro “Lucky” Lucaylucay, and Floro Villabrille into the Filipino martial arts component of the Inosanto Academy and Jeet Kune Do fighting systems developed in the West Coast of the United States.

It is said that originally, Lucaylucay wanted to call his art Suntukan, but he was concerned that it would be confused with Shotokan Karate, so he used the term Panuntukan insteaded.

The Western terms panantukan and its sibling component pananjakman (for the kicking aspect) are virtually unknown in the Philippines and are used more in Western Kali/Silat systems of Filipino-American origin.

Panuntukan consists of upper-body striking techniques such as punches, elbows, headbutts, and shoulders strikes. It also includes low-line kicks and knee strikes to the legs, shins, and groin, but some schools group this kicking aspect into the art of pananjakman, which relies on kicking and only uses the arms defensively.

Some Western instructors teach panuntukan as a separate martial art, but in the Philippines it is accepted as a part of eskrima.

Panuntukan is not a sport, but rather a street-oriented fighting system. The techniques have not been adapted for safety or conformance to a set of rules for competition, thus it has a reputation as “dirty street fighting”. Common targets include the hands, biceps, triceps, eyes, nose, jaws, temples, groin, ribs, spine, and the back of the neck.

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