If a guy was always locking my arms up I'd just start pulling him forward by moving backwards. Giving him a sharp tug forward so he looses his balance for a second.
You can’t really fight against it because it’s really easy for someone to quickly walk forward, swat away any incoming fire, and wrap. It’s tough to explain, but if you were to spar someone, you’d see that clinching is just one of those things that is pretty much 100% guaranteed to slow down any fight. I honestly don’t know how clinching has been allowed for so long. A blatant break of the rules and everyone hates to see it.
Clinching is a skill. An even harder skill is resisting, avoiding the clinch. It is a skill that needs drilling though. There are ways to upset your opponent’s balance when in the clinch and the main way is learning how to and getting used to “punching through” attempted clinches. It becomes a “silent agreement” to rest quite often, it naturally happens, so it needs drilling to avoid this.
Kostya Tszyu got destroyed by sticky Ricky Hatton's clinches TKO'ed his old ass with them literally went to his corner and said I'm too old for this shxt
He fought like he was conditioned to wait for the ref to simply break them apart. In later years he would try to fight out of the clinch, but it always looked like he did it so due to frustration, and not tactics.
Yes, and the sense I get is that perhaps that is something that Cus instilled in him. To be so mentally strong and well prepared that nothing could possibly frustrate him, even a clincher or excessive holder. Lets face it, that was one of the strategies that some of his 80s opponents employed against him, and for the most part he didn't get too frustrated. When it happened, he just waited for the ref to step in and break. Because Prime Mike was so well disciplined to never become frustrated and just be patient when tied up and wait for the ref to break. Never was this more apparent than in the Bonecrusher Smith match but you didn't see Tyson becoming mentally unglued, he just stuck to the gameplan, stayed focused and got his work in when the opportunity presented itself. Prime Tyson was a true professional and was so well versed in the sweet science, nothing could ever rattle him no matter what strategy the opponent brought.