In Japan in K1 (Thats kickboxing) they banned clinching, any fighter that clinches gets warned and eventually points taken away and then purse reduction! And its not like in the states where it takes dozens of clinches to get a warning its literally the first clinch.
bhop needs to be deducted a point for gds sake why do refs never do that with bhop? its all obvious to all of us on here. Bhop for gods sake FIGHT!!
B-Hop has a Lot of power in American boxing. No ref who wants to ref future high-profile fights is going to risk deducting a point and possibly losing the fight for him.(It's probably the same with Hatton or Calzaghe in England). Watch the Tarver fight again with the sound off. Count how many times each round Hopkins charges and grabs Tarver.
It's when a fighters whole game is clinching that it becomes unwatchable; Hopkins, Wlad et al are dull, but real bums like Ruiz and Hatton shouldn't even be allowed in the ring.
here's a soundbyte of Hopkins talking about how he approaches his illegal tactics http://www.zshare.net/audio/7039913d3e26b3/
Exactly. When clinching is used judiciously as a SUPPLEMENT to actual boxing skills, it's one thing - but when it's used as a REPLACEMENT for them, as Ruiz does, that's where it really crosses the line. A fighter like Ruiz, who is as limited as they come, would never have gotten anywhere in the fight game without cheating.
Ricky Hatton says it's an art to working in close and finding gaps to land your shots as much as being able to box on the outside - his performance against Tszyu was considered as one of the best by a British boxer ever, he says, and mentions JCC and Roberto Duran as others to have used their hands and arms to find gaps inside in what he calls technical inside fighting. Another example is Frank Bruno that would follow up any given shot on Mike the second time around, tyin him up but it Bernard was the one to be penalised for move-and-grab tactics against Winky by referee Robert Byrd?... Well, Joey was warned not to hold Mikkel with one hand and hit him with the other, rabbit-punch him with clubbing punches by ref Mike Ortega and he wasn't penalised either...
Wlad was the clinching grabbing, cuddling and hanging on for dear life master versus Peter. He would lunge in to grab hold and turn his head away at the same time, he held on and leaned down on Peters kneck and back, the ref didnt even warn him until round 11 lol, in fact the ref warned Peter in about round 5 for trying to break free from the vice like grip which was real bizzarre. Randy Newman just seemed to be too old and fat to want to exert himself by getting in and splitting the clinches up so did a terrible job.
I don't think clinching should be used to supplement boxing skills any more than low blows should be used to supplement boxing skills.