Punches to the heart?

I am very curious as to if a heart punch is affective? You don’t really see people aim for it. Sounds kind of dangerous to train people to strike there.

 

I’ve mentioned to my boxing class about punching at the heart they were horrified lol. I knew instinctively people used to aim for it but at that point I was afraid to teach it because I don’t know what the affects could be. Would u happen to know the affects of the punch? I had thought it was meant to tire the opponent but my mind immediately jumped to stopping the heart and I don’t want that lol

 

A mans chest (athletes) tends to be one of the most heavily muscled areas of the body and is often behind the gloves and arms. I actually wonder why the breasts aren't targeted more in female boxing, a pretty sensitive area.

Is there actually a rule against that or just a gentlewoman's agreement not to aim for them?

 

Ox Baker perfected it.

 

It is a draining shot. I teach it all the time because it is a natural counter, and every fighter that I have ever been around uses it effectively. If you watch the Arguello v Mancini fight, that last sequence of punches begins with a right uppercut to the heart area. I read one description of the first Liston v Patterson fight that said that the punch that finished Patterson was not the punches to the head but a right hand under the heart.
Getting hit with it...it is like when you are playing a video game and the controller shakes and you don't know who how or where you get hit but suddenly half your life line is gone. A good shot on the heart is like that. I have heard of people getting hit in the chest with a baseball thrown hard and dying, so I guess there is danger to it, but there is danger to every punch thrown.

 

I've never heard a strike to the heart behave in a way to one to the solar plexus or liver which do drop you almost right away. I'd say a shot to the heart to react that way, would have to be so precise and have so much power behind it that it's not efficient to attempt.

I follow/train other martial arts and similarly punches/kicks to the liver are well known but shots aiming to the heart not.

 

The one and only private conversation I had with the late poster John Garfield was about Angelo Dundee, at the beginning, and ended up being about this punch. He told me that it was one of the first things that Dundee taught to many fighters.

 

That was a wicked shot, almost took him off his feet.

 

Am I alone, or has anybody else read somewhere that after his blood splattered loss to Greb, Tunney was taken aside by Leonard and told the only way to stop Harry's advance was to place a stiff punch under his heart, which apparently Tunney was to do in his subsequent fights with the Windmill, and did indeed slow Greb down.
Also in the bowels of my memory, there is a quote from Dempsey regarding a punch from the aforementioned Tunney, alluding to the fact of that single punch to his heart, was the hardest he was to receive in his illustrious career. stay safe hombres .