Why did the old timers have their hands so low?

No its not hard to block a shot when you have your hands up, its far far easier to manouver your hands to parry if your hands are up than if they are down, you have to move them around 3 inches as opposed to 3 feet. Saying its harder to parry with your hands up is LAUGHABLE TO THE EXTREME. I suppose the likes of Duran were really **** at parrying too right? Posting a pic of a weight drained DLH getting tagged proves nothing, he never had much defensive skill in the first place

And whos talking about keeping the gloves/guard in a stationary position? Movement from the hips/waist/shoulder is the ideal

As for older timers focusing on evasive movement. SO why don't they have good lateral movement? They go back and forwards in straight lines, which is another big no no. Where is the evasive movement on par with the likes of Whitaker, Ray Leonard, ALi, Pep? Also why is the footwork so straight up with a lack of shift of bodyweight from 1 side to the other?

 

Would that not be because they also have to block leg and foot shots ?
I don't watch much MMA ,or whatever its called, but from what I have seen their punching technique is horrible, I would not bring them into the equation.

 

Your theory about overcommiting seems logical,as the penalty for missing is potentially much more severe ,I should think.
That huge Pole, Pozdainowski ,whatever, he is called, built like Hercules ,punches like my girl friend,they dont turn their hands over ,must have been taught by Calzaghe.

 

This is true. Well, when placed within the right context. I mean, i'm sure a lower guard worked better with the boxing rules as they were in 1900, which is COMPLETELY different from what they were in 1930. It took some time for boxers, heavyweights especially, to evolve.

 

Pudzianowski is a strongman who just fought his first fight in MMA. He does not in any way, shape, or form represent typical mixed martial artists.

That being said, you're right.

 

It's a bit deeper than that.

There was much more emphasis on the 'lean', a move associated with Corbett and Johnson to make your man over-reach, which Ali would later popularize.

With lighter gloves, punches to the head were generally less concussive whereas a blow in the gut would really sink in and when you’ve got 20-45 rounds to play around with you’re gonna’ make damn sure you don’t cop many down there.

Activity levels were generally lower because the consequences of getting punched could be far deadlier. Go and have a spar with some bag gloves and you’ll find your self not as willing to hang about in the ‘pocket’ and instead assume a more open glove, distant stance.

To contrast the old timer’s methods against the fellows of today and come to blunt conclusions is akin to throwing a Neanderthal in a pool and asking why it does not swim as well. It was a different ball game.

 

The gloves were smaller so a blow to the body is worse than a head shot - we all agree on this

If you have smaller gloves and bring your hands up it is very hard to protect your head as you are basically halfing the area of your defence as your gloves are smaller so less defensive coverage and the opponents gloves are smaller so less area of oncoming opponents blows to block away, so more shots would get through.

So a high right hand taht floated around the chin and a left arm that was low to protect the body was the most commonly used guard. I dont think you can disagree here as it is shown in film that the right hand stayed fairly high.

The right hand was set in the perfect place for parrying as it was loose and quickly able to parry a shot, now a parry is different from a block which is used now adays when fighters keep both of there hands up and tend to just put there glove in front of the oncoming glove, a parry knocks the arm away and leaves the person punching off balance due to the shift of there force making them unable to follow up with any more shots - if done correctly.

A parry when both hands are held high generally lacks the strength to alter your opponents line of projectory in their punch enough to throw them off balance and is more just a temporary defence and purely defensive instead of being used for counter attacks.

Also when both hands are held high you are left to guard your body with your elbows and they are quite thin and dont cover too much area and this is amplified with littler gloves that are harder to deflect so instead the left hand was used to cover the body more fully than the elbows or used to parry the oncoming shots (and therefor causing the same effect as a parried head shot but also sets up a brillaint right hand counter), whereas with bigger gloves there is more chance they just hit your elbows and they dont hurt as much when you get hit by them.

But guys were fighting say every month at least in those days in the gym sparring at least once a week (normaly) so of course they would develop the most effective style to use there hardly going to go against all your insticnts and use a defence that does not work to protect themselves are they?

And also there was elements of keeping your hands up in play as cross_trainer has pointed out.

Also does anyone not think that the use of a high guard corrolates with the use of bigger gloves? In other words do you think Winky Wright would have been effective in the 1910's with his high guard?

 

Interesting thread this one.

 

In what way do top MMA fighters use 'high guards'? They don't stand with their hands behind their back, but they certainly don't use what in boxing would be called a high guard; it simply doesn't work with 4oz gloves.

 

I appreciate he is a debutee,I used him as an example ,because to be honest he was fresh in my mind ,and I don't generally watch MMA, so I would have been scratching for another name.
I didn't intend any slight on MMA fighters who are undoubtedly very tough men ,just not usually that technically good at throwing punches ,imo.

 

Because you're used to watching boxing and are applying the same standards to a completely different sport. You can't block punches with gloves, you can't stand sideways because it compromises your balance so much, the jab often becomes useless unless you have a 16" height and reach advantage because kicks have a much longer range, you can't throw a punch and clinch and expect the referee to restart the fight on the outside. I know you said you don't know much about MMA, but I suspect you're doing the same thing with the old timers; applying rules and standards from modern boxing that are completely irrelevant.

 

Didn't Ali and Holmes often keep their hands low?

 

You make alot of sense Greg.