Marciano head control on the inside

Clinching is holding, it is 100% illegal under the rules. But tolerated for some never-explained reason.

Infighting is probably misunderstood.
People tend to think "infighting" just means fighting inside the full range, ie. close fighting.
But actually there's the other dimensional plane, where the fighter is trying to get their arms inside the opponent's arms, and targeting the mid-line target area. It's a chess match even if it looks ugly.

 

http://wbcboxing.com/downloads/RULES_FOR_CHAMPIONSHIP_FIGHTS_-_SYNTHESIZED_09.pdf

Says nothing about using the head to push, only to butt.
Though "28. Any rough tactics other than clean punches." is certainly up for interpretation, but later is says "Authority of Referee. The referee has the discretion and authority to: 1) interpret and enforce these rules"

Also as far as the clinch goes here is the rule, as it's worded, in the rules. "13. Excessive holding the opponent or maintaining a clinch."

Clinching is legal, however excessive holding or maintaining a clinch is not.

And under the rules it is up to the discretion of the ref as to what defines excessive.

Says nothing about using the head to maintain position or "arm turns" which are perfectly valid forms of positional boxing or in a momentary clinch.

 

Holyfield too.

 

Good discussions here concerning head positioning and legal clinching vs head butts and
illegal grabbing. It's all in the eye of the beholder, and the referee. We all know that some
refs will allow infighting and defensive clinching, and some just don't. I can think of a couple
refs who will break boxers apart even if they are merely close to one another, much less clinching.

In the video GGG is showing a much taller boxer how to position his head against....I wonder
if that boxer was training to fight a taller or smaller guy. Marciano was always (I think) smaller
than his opponents so it was in his favor to put his head against his opponents chest and fight inside.
Obviously a guy like Wlad Klit couldn't use that technique...he was almost always taller than the other
guy. That's why he never learned head positioning which is one of the reasons he lost vs Fury who
was and is taller than Wlad.

I still maintain that Ward head butts frequently. He has a yuuuge head and uses it as a weapon.
As did Holyfield on occasion.

 

Yes, Andre Ward headbutts blatantly.
Holyfield did too but Holyfield was at least an aggressive fighter. Hopkins butted constantly.
Klitschko butted blatantly against Fury.

 

Louis handled him quite well on the inside.
The clip shows Marciano's nice footwork.

 

From the technical stand point the "Any rough tactics other than clean punches" rule throws out any of the work in clinches.

Using the head is rough tactics. pushing, wrestling, holding and hitting, anything but punching into the target area with the knuckle part of the glove (with sufficient force) is rough or foul tactics. laying on is a foul.

Holding is illegal. It's not boxing.

Coming together however is an unavoidable byproduct. If it turns into a clinch they must be broken or encouraged to work out of it..It is this part that confuses fans because this is the refs discretion. He decides. nobody is saying holding is legal. They must be broken or box out of it.

 

wtf? inside fighting is clincing? clinching is illegal? any form of head contact is a headbutt?

corinthians goalkeeper just moved out of the way of a penalty again, no, hold on, the last time that happened was in 1880.

 

Inside fighting is inside fighting.

Clinching is illegal.

A headbutt is a headbutt.

 

He uses his feet to allow him to push Louis off balance with his head/shoulders.
Louis is pushed off balance because he fails to adjust his feet.
It's all in the feet.

 

Clinching is NOT illegal in pro boxing. Excessive holding is illegal upon the discretion of the referee. Holding is defined as grabbing an opponent to prevent him from throwing punches. Clinching is a defensive technique which allows a slick boxer to minimize an inside fighters opportunity to land in close. You can see clinching by Tunney during both his bouts with Dempsey right up to the present day. The key word is "excessive". The ref decides the definition of this term during every bout.

 

Nope. Boxing officials do not differentiate between a clinch and holding. The level of toleration for an acceptable amount is up to the ref.

A boxer can make a hold look like an accidental tangle or for a clinch to look like the other guy won't let go. None of that is boxing. Therefore it's not legal in the official sense.

The rules are not complicated.

Boxing is punching the target area with sufficient force with only the knuckle part of the glove. It's that simple. Everything else (in sight of the ref) can be legally discouraged.

 

Holding is another term for holding and hitting. Examples of this would be to look at Loughrans bout with Braddock or Corbett sparring with Tunney. Here one arm is used to pinion (hold) the other fighters two gloves while the free hand is used to throw punches. This is an illegal tactic but in small does may not cause disqualification. Opposed to this is the defensive move of clinching. Clinching can be found all through boxing history. Watch Tunney Dempsey which occurred 90 years ago. Clinching unless it is being done in excess (Vitali as an example) is not an illegal activity.