It just dawned on me, they appear to be very similar as far as biomechanics is concerned (at least from my limited perspective). What do you think?

That discovery must be "in the air". I came to the same conclusion about three weeks ago. In earlier postings both here and on other hsing yi boards, several people had mentioned the common ideas in western boxing and hsing yi.

Although I have not seen it, I thing somebody recently wrote a piece in the Asian Journal of Martial Arts that was drawing comparisons between hsing yi and western boxing.

Take care,
Brian

The article that Brian mentions is by Bob Yu, a student of Hong Yi Xiang and a friend of his who is a boxer. It has some interesting information.

Does western boxing have the spine wave? what about the weight on the rear leg?

From what i've heard old school bare-knuckle boxing is even more eerily similar to xingyi.

Western boxers are taught to move the hips first, and then block with the lead foot so that the momentum transfers up the torso (spine) into the striking arm. This is basically the same as a spine wave.

Just another link on the subject

http://metal-tiger.com/Wu_Tang_PCA/FastLoose.html

long-winded and at the end I didn't learn anything useful but someone's point of view on historical comparative study of MA. Thumbs down

Sorry for disappointing you ;-(
This link was just to illustrate that this similarity is something "in the air"

Speaking of the similarity and crosstraining:
does anybody know a sucessful professional boxer who would practice IMA at the same time?