Body Punching- Is it to Overlooked?

First person to use the word "invest" in this thread will be taken out and shot....:O)

 

Yeah ia gree with you mate,

I dont think they pay enough attention to body shots, unless a boxer is put on his back by one.

As we all know body shots afr effective and should be considered as effective as head shots when it comes down to the score cards!:good

Its always good to see a plush bodyshot (for example Khans the other night, and Hatton's when he was fighting):good

G

 

IMHO people who scored that fight for Froch had to be ignoring, or at least not giving enough credit to, the rights to the body Kessler was landing throughout the fight.

 

It's so true though. Kessler's bodywork took it out of Froch. People were wondering why Froch gassed late more than usual or why he didn't have the same work-rate. It's easy to blame volcanoes and such but that is the answer. He admitted himself Kessler did good bodywork, and when Froch admits something like that it basically means 'the bodyshots sucked the ****ing life out of me'.

In general bodywork is crucial and I don't consider a fighter complete if he never or rarely fires bodyshots. They are not as eye catching thats the problem. I think judges do give them credit, but its a lot easier to see a punch snapping someones head back than whether a body shot landed cleanly.

 

I thought Matthyse vs Zab should of been a clear Matthyse decision after a 2nd look worked the body really well early on.

 

In this fight it was a moot point. Judges knew who to score for before the fight started.

 

I think it all depends on the opponents. A lot of these German based boxers (Abraham, Huck, Karo Murat) are good examples of when and why body punches should be used. Froch used them perfectly against Abraham and from what I saw Lebedev was effective to the body against Huck. David Haye also used the jab to the body well against Valuev as well.

But sometimes you get opponents where body shots are near useless or hard to land. Try throwing a lot of body shots against someone like Floyd Mayweather and he's gonna roll your punches and pick you apart all night.

But it's definitely good to have a variety and mixing in body shots is often overlooked. In the high pressure situation of a fight, the natural instincts aren't to throw shots to the body.

 

Yeah in this fight it wont have mattered.

id like to think it is scored in fights as i really enjoy seeing a boxer investing in the body early in a fight i thought simpson done this well the other night against lindsay.

 

Too many fighters do ignore it.

Miguel Cotto hasn't looked the same fighter since he stopped banging to the body, even before the two losses he started to neglect the body attacks.

A really good way to slow the opponent down and/or make him stand in front of you. Especially useful when you've got a man hurt and want his guard down.

 

You're far more likely to land the knockout punch to the head by INVESTING in bodyshots also. As everybody knows, we talk about it, commentators talk about it all the time. Unless you have freakish arms its near impossible to cover everything without reacting to a certain degree, so if you can keep an opponent worried downstairs he's going to be loose upstairs. Yet many fighters seemingly pay no attention to this.

 

They're the difference in so many fights IMO, its become a bit of a lost art there's so many headhunters around today, you can have all the preparation in the world but nothing slows you down or sucks the fight out of you like a decent bodyshot. Look at Pacman he hasn't even been flustered by anything upstairs against naturally bigger guys the only time he's looked hurt was the Marg fight when that body shot landed.

It's another example for me of what we talked about in Mandanda's great thread the other week about modern fighting and fighters not taking the time to learn the art and the game like they used to. Too much time spent looking for highlight reel one punch ko's rather than systematically breaking an opponent down.

As for judging, agree with everyone above its definitely overlooked, although Lebedev could have taken Huck's head clean off his shoulders and he wasn't getting that decision tonight.