Parrying vs. Boxers

[velalavela]

Has anyone here seen that show 'Fight Quest'

I quite liked it as it put the two mixed martial artists up against lots of schools of pretty good martial artists. You got to see how a bunch of people train all over the world. Apart from them being pretty beat up each week, what a great gig to get to do.

One of the best was when they went to Mexico to trian a week with boxers. Most of the stuff you guys are talking about came up.....

Worth finding a copy and watching it (unless you have not already seen it).

regards

[Bhassler]

Tao Joannes,

That strategy is always put out there as the solution to fighting a boxer if you're a neijia guy. Heck, I've probably done it a time or two myself. However, there are two problems with it:

1) It's much, much easier said than done. Even blending with it in the first place is a fine art, nevermind adhering enough to both follow in and redirect it to put yourself into a position for your own counterstrike. Not saying it can't be done, but it's much harder with a boxer than with most CMA guys.

2) Even if you do correctly blend/adhere/redirect, you're still far more vulnerable to his follow-up shot with the other hand because, as I noted in my previous post, boxers fire their punches off in such a way that, unlike many other stylists, they do not overcommit their shoulder girdle (nor reach far over their balance point) and are therefore not nearly as susceptible to allowing you to exploit a parried punch to achieve a superior tactical position. Even if you follow it in, you may only be being drawn into his combo....maybe even on purpose, if he's started to notice that you like to stick and follow a lot.

Still, it can be better than trying to "block" a boxer's punches, which is futile to the point of entertainment.

Hi Chris,

What about sticking/following a punch in after you've been hit? Not the best case scenario, but do you think it is viable? I've had success against guys of relatively similar experience level to me, but the game can change a lot as guys improve.

[Chris McKinley]

See my post on sticking/following just previous. Same stuff applies, only it's even harder still, since you're now just that much more off-balance/woozy. This is essentially what Tao Joannes and I were already discussing in those posts, since you can pretty much assume that the boxer is likely connecting fairly frequently anyway. It's his game, and it's all he does. That he would be pretty good at it should come as a surprise to no one. In fact, unless you've managed to either stay out of range and kicked the bejeebus out of him or quickly shot in and taken him down, we must pretty much assume that whatever strategy we have for facing a boxer is going to include doing whatever you're going to do after you've been hit since, again, you're very likely to be.