I know its not a newly invented technique but a lot of Canelo's game plan seems to involve purposly bashing the hell out of the opponents arms, was this technigue destined to fail against a bigger stronger guy as opposed to more fragile guys like plant and dead at the weight Smith ?
Think he just got frustrated & knew the dirty judges would score it, Bivol was very comfortable behind his high guard and it was the only time Canelo could comfortably position himself to let off his rehearsed wombo combo's... Then Bivol dropped his guard and countered back immediately which basically made Canelo cry, internally at least. A lot of fighters will hide behind a high guard as a last resort, Bivol's uses his. He could have moved on Canelo for the entire fight but wanted to see what Canelo had for him and could have even got physical and pressed on him but he didn't.
He was punching arms due to his inability to hit smart boxers with a tight guard, both Smith and Bivol use the high guard, Lloyd Honeyghan tried the same tactic v Starling.
Canelo doesn't punch hard enough to hurt people through their guard. Now Beterbiev on the other hand... Bivols shoulder is going to fall off by the late rounds. The mans shoulder will be in agony and he will finish him.
Bivol isn't going to be sitting behind a high guard against Berbirutieivigferfvrtvvrtg like he did Nelo'. He'll stick and move all fight long
It is not a fight decider, but sure as hell late in a fight it is another thing for your opponent to have to cope with, accumulated punches to your arms has a negative effect. So not destined to fail, just did not have a big enough negative effect on Bivol, being bigger and stronger yes likely does minimise the effect, but a strong puncher hitting your arms even if they are smaller has a impact.
I think Canelo's approach is a little more nuanced that simply hitting arms. Guys that adopt the high guard still need to adjust the guard to block and roll with shots. Canelo often mixes his shots up in an intelligent way to create openings in the high guard, like in one of the early rounds when he started with a wide right hook to widen the guard of Bivol then came up the middle with an uppercut between the gap that was created by the right hook. Problem Canelo had was Bivol used his own high guard tactics against him. Canelo often stays in range behind a high guard to draw leads so he can safely gauge his opponents speed and rhythm and so he can then later on time his opponent with counters. Bivol though didn't fall for this, he just kept the high same high guard and used his jab not wasting shots, not being drawn to leading so Canelo never really got Bivol's timing and it was Bivol that ended up making Canelo lead by simply sticking to the jab and being more patient.
I thought Canelo's defense really let him down. He had the flashy head movement as always, but he burned a lot of energy doing so and on other occasions simply got his guard split. Bivol made it look easy. I actually thought he could have gotten a KO if he pressed for it, but I understand why he didn't.
just wondering, do body punches counted as scoring punch back in the day? like 60's or 70's? if so, in the future can boxing rule develop punching arms as scoring punch?
Maybe it’s a strategy to weaken the jab hand for the latter half of the fight. Everything went out the window when Canelo gassed however.
It is waste of energy if you are not a super puncher and have bad stamina. In Kovalev vs Cleverly fight it was a winning strategy.
He was just unable to penetrate high guard with good and tight defence. AJ also have high guard, and unlike most opinion on here, very good defense, but Usyk is 100x more boxer than Clenelo, and he knows how to penetrate high guards and neutralize that style. This wasn't a tactic, but a thing out of frustration. While being with gloves and well protected, you can still f**** your hands. If a guy is conditioned enough, punching elbows and the "shin" part is going to do a lot more damage to you, than to your opponent actually.
Yeah his high guard this time was more of a liability because Bivol like Canelo himself knows how to open in up and split the guard by varying shots to create gaps, like I described in my previous post. So he was only left with head movement and as you say that burns a lot of energy and Canelo's never had a very big gas tank and against a bigger man he was always going to be drained quicker than normal.
Yeah it was. When you can't penetrate someone defense you either going to hit thin air or the opponent guard, exactly what Clenelo was doing. It's simply as that. But who knows with that fraud, obviously the judges was scoring this punches, and was giving him round, but we all know that is due to corruption. If opponent does the same, they will scream that Canelo defense is incredible. No one in his goddamn mind, esp. being the smaller guy will try this as a strategy or will expect anyone to score a round for him, cause he punches thin air and gloves all night long. Anyone except that fraud Clenelo.