Boxing questions

[red5angel]

Ok, so I was watching boxing on sunday night on fox sports. I have a couple of questions for you boxers....

Why all the hugging? Seriously though why are they always clinching each other? Is it part of the sport as far as is it some sort of tactic?

Also, do women only normally fight 4 rounds? I saw the Mia St. John fight and they only went 4 rounds.

[Merryprankster]

Red--

The length of a boxing fight varies. Some are 4 or 6 or 8 or 10 or 12 rounds. It depends.

Women's rounds are 2 minutes long, vice 3 in pro boxing.

The clinching is a fighting tactic. If you are the outside fighter in the match up, and the other guy gets inside, you clinch to tie him up so he can't hit you (works in real life too). Holyfield Ruiz III looked a lot like that. Holyfield would try to get inside, and Ruiz would throw one two, and clinch. The ref starts you back over.

[red5angel]

So if I understand you correctly, they are trying to control the center of the ring and if they have been forced to the outside they clinch so that the ref puls them apart? does he pull them to the middle and start them over?

[Merryprankster]

No. Inside and outside are relative terms. The person who is taller, has longer reach and/or better footwork, typically wants to be on the "outside," of his opponent. This allows you to establish your jab early, take angles off the combo, and use your movement to evade the other guy.

The inside fighter typically wants to be "inside," the optimum punching power of his opponent--he's jamming his opponents shots. This allows him to throw power shots on the inside, where he can do the most damage, while the other guy can't cause as much harm because he's jammed up.

Examples--when I spar with a partner that is 6' 4" I am constantly slipping and weaving under his punches to get inside his reach and unload on him before he dances away. If it were pro rules, a good tactic would be to clinch with me to get the ref to break us up. so we could start over.

When I spar with a guy who is 5' 8" I am establishing my jab to keep him at a distance, constantly dancing in and out of range to take angles and keep him from coming inside where I am jammed up.

It has nothing to do with where you are in the ring.

[red5angel]

I got a little confused because the announcers kept pointing out that they were cutting the ring and keeping each other on the ropes.
So inside is basically closer while outside is basically ****her?

Do you think headbutting is also a tactic in boxing? The maiun event ended in the sixth round after these guys had headbutted each other a few times. The guy who one was or is known for his "dirty" fighting, I guess. Vargas was his last name, it was a Bantam-weight match

[Merryprankster]

Headbutting can be a tactic if you are a dirty fighter. If your conditioning is poor and the headbutt looks accidental, and you open up an injury the fight is stopped for, you might win on the cards. Or you could just be trying to rough the other guy up. Many people think Holyfield is a dirty fighter, but I disagree. He keeps his chin down and throws from the inside. People have a tendency to run into his head :) It's really not his fault. When you fight inside, you're going to get hit, and you're going to have bumps and scrapes.

Cutting off the ring is a strategy. If I can get a guy who uses his footwork and speed for defense backed into a corner with punches and appropriate timing/footwork, then I've just limited his ability to defend/launch counters.

Yeah--inside is basically closer, and outside is basically ****her. Watch a fight were there is a significant reach difference, and you'll notice that the shorter guy is usually stalking, slipping and weaving, and trying to take quick angles to get inside the opponents reach. You'll see lots of hooks and uppercuts. The taller guy is usually using more jabs and crosses, and keeping the other guy off him with the stiff jab and constant movement.

[red5angel]

hmmmmm, interesting. I had another question. I noticed that the women tend to throw a lot of crosses, is this normal? Are they encouraged to throw these over other things?

[Merryprankster]

I think that is probably a personal preference. Different people have different things they are known for. Tyson has knockout power in both hands with hooks and uppercuts, Tua hits with the left hook, Lewis is known for jab cross combos, etc.

[red5angel]

I sort of figured that. I just noticed that the two ladies fighting were both favoring crosses and was wondering if for some reason this was favored by them.
When is the best time to catch some good fights?

[Merryprankster]

ESPN 2 usually has Friday Night fights around 9/10 pm. Not too shabby if you've got nothing better to do. Some of them are great and some of them suck.

[wufupaul]

Mmmhh..Mia St. John...Playboy November...oops! Did I actually type that? ;)

[SevenStar]

Speaking of headbutts, did any of you catch the holyfield - rahmin fight? it ended to due a headbutt by holyfield, which left a tangerine sized knot on rahmin's head - literally. It had to have busted some blood vessels.