hey guys wats up i sparred yesterday and suffered my first knockdown... yea its depressing, but i still think my chin is solid since i took alot of real hard face shots and felt alright. but one good left hook to the ribs and down i went. this is the second time this happend but the first i was just badly hurt and the other guy backed off so i could recover. is it untrained abs or rib muscles that did this or is it genetics like a chin is and do i just have to be more careful, not that im not going to be from now on anyway.
A fighter doesn't have too many options as far as defending body punches. It is virtually impossible to slip a body punch, so you're pretty much stuck with blocking them. Any one that's boxed, knows that a body shot to the right spot takes it out of you faster than anything else. The first thing I recommend doing is, getting down, and not standing straight up. If you're up too high with a shorter guy who's throwing body punches on the inside, don't expect to have too much left at the end of the round. Bend your knees, and get down! This is especially important if your back is too the ropes. If your back is to the ropes, drop down, bending your knees, and bring your elbows in tight. Standing straight up on the ropes is a recipe for disaster. When blocking a left hook to the body, have your right elbow in and kind of dip into the left hook, catching it with your elbow. I like to immediately fire a straight right hand back. If your opponent is jabbing to your body too much, simply be patient. He'll be open for a counter. Don't bring your right hand down to block the jab to the body. If you do, your probably going to get hit with a left hook. Block it with your forearm. There are a few ways to block a straight right hand. If you've got longer arms than your opponent, right when you see him drop down to throw that right hand to the body, you can immediately put your hand on his right shoulder, and move to the left. He shouldn't be able to get his right hand off. You can also catch it on your forearm like you did the jab. Uppercuts to the body are blocked the same way you block an uppercut to the head. By keeping your elbows in together. If you've got an opponent that's throwing a right hook to the body, I recommend catching it and throwing a left hook as soon as possible. Or even throwing your own left hook right when you see him start to throw it. Your left hook will probably get there before his right hand. Right hooks aren't the best punch to throw if you're a right handed fighter, because they leave you very open to counters. Remember to bring your hands and elbows back immediately after throwing a punch. A body shot landed with your arms still out there is one of the worse shots to be hit with. A left hook to liver is multiplied ten fold, when the fighter has hs right hand still extended. Somebody explained it to me once, that when your right hand is extended, your liver has a sac, that expands, leaving more room for your liver to be banged around. When your right hand is in, that sac isn't expanded, and is much tighter, not leaving room for it to bang around. I don't know if it's true or not, but when I get hit with a liver shot and my right hand is out, it's so much more painful than when my right hand is in. Remember what I said about not standing straight up, keeping your elbows in, and you eliminate at least 75% of the body punches you could get hit with. If you want to see somebody that was a master of catching body punches and throwing back immediately, check out James Toney's early fights. Alot of the time he was fighting with his back to the ropes, and still dominating. I think John Buckley said something about sparring with him, so he probably has better insight into Toney's defensive tactics. Get your body in shape to withstand those body shots, because some are going to get through no matter what, and like I said earlier, there's nothing that takes the fight out of you more, than a well placed body shot.
thanks alot, great and very helpful advice, but are there any excercises that can help me in case i do get hit, i can absorb it better or do i just gotta become a more defensive fighter.
Block em. If he keeps throwing low, try sticking an elbow into his fist, that hurts like hell. Be careful though, he may be doing it to pull down your guard. When inside you could use half guard (philly shell) if you're good at it, it makes it nearly impossible to be hit downstairs in my experience. It's not everyone's forte though.
You could get someone to whack you in the side with a medicine ball. Or stand with your hands on your head while someone whacks you with one of those long kickboxing pads. That one's kind of fun actually
