Who won: Shakur Stevenson or William Zepeda

Modern glove size just makes it easier to merely put your hands up and be considered defensively responsible, whereas older fighters had smaller gloves that basically forced them to be skilled with blocks and parries.

I went on a Matthew Saad Muhammad marathon recently, literally watched all his available fights, and you can definitely see the difference between the gloves from when he was in his prime years in the late 70s-early 80s compared to the Grover and Manyard fights in the early 90s.

That, as well as coaches always telling you to keep your hands up, practically created the high guard cult. Shakur even criticised Sugar Ray Robinson by saying he was buns for not having his hands up, despite Shakur being more of a philly shell guy himself. It's a shame, because the high guard was considered to be the lowest form of defence a few decades ago, as you can't properly counter punch when you've got your hands that way, and since you don't put yourself in advantageous angles for counters and further offense through slipping, ducking and weaving.

 

Technically yeah. It is more advantageous if you defend with upper body movement, as it keeps you in position to attack. However the damage is still there if you get hit on the shoulders or neck. Someone like Pernell Whittaker had slurred speech, despite him being a great defensive fighter.

The hate for the high guard stance has always been unjustified. It worked pretty well for the Soviet system in the amateur circuit. D'Amato had a lot of good points with the peek-a-boo style. The lead hand isn't up in a fencing position, but the right hand is closer to your opponent, so you can hit him easier. Things constantly change. In boxing as well.

 

The Peek a boo style is interesting. I think such a style should be used sparringly and only at the right times. Such a squared stance gets your head closer to your opponent and you can't react to punches quite as well, not to mention that there's less momentum to the right hand, even though it's closer to your opponent. Not to mention that you can't do my personal favourite "Gotcha, you clueless ****" in Boxing, which is the fact that the right straight actually travels further than the left jab when from an angled stance

Go to a wall with an angled stance, extend your left hand forward at a distance where it cannot touch the wall, but just a fight inches, then throw the right hand without taking a single step, just put your hips, waist and shoulder into it. It's ****ing awesome. Kills the entire world view of anyone who measures with their left thinking the right doesn't go further than that.

The peek a boo and the high guard are pretty bad for long range Boxing (potentially even mid range), all things considered. But up close, the sudden angle changes, the shift to southpaw due to the squared nature of the stance, and left-right momentum of the hooks can be devastating. I heavily subscribe to the idea that the closest you are to your opponent, the higher your guard should be, and the furthest you are from him, the lower it should be.

 

It can work if you have a good jab like Winky Wright or Ike Quartey for mid range. Well one's body structure matters. Both had long arms and short torsos. It could work on against taller opponents if one has tremendous ring IQ. Although in the case of Mike Tyson, he managed to due it out of fear rather than prowess.

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Golovkin was excellent in shifting in close range.

 

There have been plenty of modern era fighters who do use the high guard very effectively for counter-punching though. It doesn't limit opportunities to counterpunch, it opens up opportunities when used correctly. Even in Shakur vs Zepeda, we saw Shakur employ a high guard at times to bait out attacks from Zepeda so that he could catch and shoot, predominantly countering with the right hook to punish Zepeda's wide left hand and how he didn't bring his left hand back home. Shakur was able to use the high guard to get Zepeda to open up so that he could counter off of him to slow down Zepeda's offence. By inviting Zepeda in and letting him throw, it meant Shakur was able to dictate the pace of the fight later on because Zepeda had expended too much energy early wailing away on Shakur's guard where he kept getting caught in between his punches. Shakur was defending against Zepeda in pretty much every guard available, he'd paw out his long guard to defend against Zepeda's jab at range, was parrying and slipping Zepeda's punches out of the shell, and when he felt like spending less mental energy on defence, he would go into an active high guard and make Zepeda waste his energy while Shakur spent his time catching a breather, timing Zepeda's rhythm, and finding a home for his counters. It really was a virtuoso performance and a significant part of Shakur's success was his ability to integrate the high guard as part of his game plan in the early rounds to turn Zepeda's own aggression against him. It might not have been as pretty as his shoulder roll and head movement but it was effective defence and opened up offensive opportunities for Shakur both out of the high guard and later on in the fight when he could take advantage of a flagging Zepeda.

Canelo as well is a master of the high guard, regularly flashing the high guard to entice opponents into throwing by giving an appealing target then explodes out of the high guard with a counter. He'll walk his opponents down with the high guard and force them to either engage him and risk getting countered or be forced to cede ground. Thanks to him using the high guard, he's able to close distance responsibly while still being reactive to what his opponent is doing. He uses the high guard not only as a trap but also as a way to control the tempo of a fight, since he edges closer with his forward-leaning posture in the high guard and if his opponent doesn't react to his bait then he's able to take the initiative and lead instead. Which means that of you don't participate in Canelo's high guard dance and fight on his terms, then his will force his pace onto you, all thanks to his use of the high guard.

Here, Canelo walks into range behind the high guard to present an enticing target, Chavez Jr takes the bait and is punished with the counter right hand. Canelo is forcing his rhythm onto Chavez Jr through the high guard and punching between the beats that he establishes.
https://wp.usatodaysports.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2017/05/xeh0fiq-imgur.gif

Again, we see Canelo dictating pace with the high guard and using it to set traps.

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And I of course have to mention my sweet Nicaraguan prince, Chocolatito Gonzalez, whose brilliant active high guard has made him one of the most defensively responsible pressure fighters of all time. It also opens up his counter-punching game because of how effectively he catches and parries punches with his high guard and capitalises with combinations. (Time-stamped to discussion of Chocolatito's high guard.)

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All this is to say that, while some fighters are overly reliant on a static high guard (including Zepeda of course, who has a lot of defensive holes and bad habits which Shakur exploited), the high guard itself isn't an inherently negative or lazy tool. It can be used to great effect to set up offence and to control a fight, and if the gloves are big enough to permit fighters to use a high guard, then they should look to eke out every advantage they can with this position. Different defensive postures have different pros and cons, but it's up to the fighter to maximise the potential of whatever guard they employ. A high guard is only as crude as its user.

 

Excellent analysis

 

X2

 

I don't think it's brushed off with the likes of Canelo and Roman Gonzales operating out of it in recent history. Also Michalczewski.

 

Me too, I though it was a clear 8-4 fight

 

It has a lot of nuances.

 

Stevenson w/ no controversy

 

I thought Stevenson won but official card was way to wide.