Are Peter's new boxing skills going to turn against him?

Here is the inevitable problem Divac.

People have tried to use footwork to get in and get out on these tall clinchers. The problem is they are exceptionally tall even for a heavyweight. All they have to do is establish the jab and that will keep you chained to the outside long enough for the right hand to come behind it. And lets not forget the left hook off the jab either.

When you eventually get close enough to where his jab and right hand aren't useful, he leans in and closes the gap, YOUR gap and ties up.

Using footwork to move in and out works very well against guys who do not have such a huge height and reach advantage over you. But the more often you back up, the more available you are to the longer opponent. Once he establishes his distance no amount of footwork moving in and moving out is going to diminish his jab.

Ideally it is the job of the small man to get within his punching range to land on the opponent. To even things up. The big man who grabs everytime the small man gets close takes this right out of the fight. He nullifies it with one manuver, without using a shred of boxing skill/knowledge.

Now of course there are examples of big heavyweights who suck. They don't utilize their height, they don't work off the jab, and they don't use the right hand or left hook very effectively. However those are not the heavyweights who are dominating the sport either.

John Ruiz proved how a mediocre heavyweight can rise to champion status by eliminating all inside combat using the clinch. You say that Ruiz is the only one who jumps in to close the gap but I'll show you a ton of examples of Waldo, Lennox, McCline and others doing the same thing to smaller opponents. Ali himself would step in and grab Fraizer from behind his neck to pull him in. Same with Lyle.

Now add a body size of 6'6+ and 260lbs to that cheat. It's virtually impossible to deal with. They first off nullify any work the smaller man can do inside, then they proceed to work him from the outside with the superior reach and leverage. It's just unfair. And this is why it needs to be fixed.

 

The big man works to use his advantage (size) and the smaller man who is usually quicker and faster uses his (foot manueveability).

You cant really expect a big slow heavyweight to just cover up and let a smaller, quicker, faster fighter just reign punches on him when they get inside their reach.

Their are things a smaller fighter can do to limit the bigger man from grabbing and leaning on him.....like darting in, exploding and quickly lateralling to the sides. When you lateral to the sides, its much harder for an opponent to get a hold of you.

I agree, certain fighters clinch exessively and do it for no clear reason other than to stall a fight. Ruiz being a prime example of a fighter going foward to punch, and without his opponent even attempting to punch, Ruiz has got a hold of him.
Those are situations where an opponent did'nt even give him a reason to hold, and those instances should be warned and ultimately penalized when done exessively.

Just yesterday, I got a glimpse of ESPN Classic showing Pernell Whitaker vs Azumah Nelson, and everytime Nelson would attempt to throw a left hook over Pernell's jab, Pernell would grab a hold of Nelsons left arm and tie it up.
Whitaker did this continously......and should have probably been warned for it, but it was probably accepted by the ref in that Whitaker was continously moving his hands to throw and land punches.

When its done within the framework of an offense, I dont mind it so much that fighters turn to these clinching tricks. Some of the better fighters of all time actually routinely employ these clinching tricks.
Fighters like Ali, Duran, Hopkins, Whitaker, and quite a few others have employed them to full advantage.

Like I said, as long as they're combining these clinching tricks with an EFFECTIVE offense, I dont mind the clinch so much, I see it as part of the game!

 

i agree. i always thought that peters camp was wrong in trying to shape him into a boxer. he simply doesn't have the stamina or swiftness to compete in that kind of match up. well he COULD if he was very rangy, but since he is built for more david tua style hooks and over hand bombs, it seems a stupid move.

i am 100% sure that if peter tries to double jab against wladimir in a rematch - even if fitter than the first time! - he will get schooled even worse.

being rough and unpredicatable suits peter better, at least when facing wladimir.

really, if peter tried to jab his way in on wladimir, the ukranian champ would think he just got a gift for christmas. no one outboxes wladimir. seriously! wladimir outboxed and out sped chris byrd! who is way more faster than peter.

wladimir schooled a wild swinging, fit, and undefeated fighter in peter when his confidence wasn't quite there yet. in a rematch wladimir will ice peter bad.

but then again it all seems pointless. oleg will outbox peter, and if oleg fails vitali will ko peter late (provided no more bolts fall of his body lol).

basically peter has to pray and perform better than ever to beat oleg when he returns, and then pray some more that vitali stays retired.

 

That something being uppercuts or hooks or body shots. You didn't see Foreman grabbing Fraizer like that. And look what happened. He won by brutal KO.

It's a two way street. The big man is not some helpless fool inside, contrary to what some people think. There have been a number of big men who were exciting inside boxer/punchers. But what is happening is that the smaller man has just as much chance as the bigger man. Which is exactly how it should be.

Clinching is one of those unnecessary evils in the sport. It's horribly inconsistent because it depends on the discretion of the ref, plus it makes or breaks the gameplans used by these big men at the higher level. Ultimately the big man is giving up a cheat. But at the same time he is opening up his offense inside, increasing his chances of a stoppage and also giving the smaller man a chance to work.

Of course boxers are going to do whatever they can get away with. That isn't something I'm expecting them to stop doing. Once you limit the clinch however, expect to see fights improve, boxers take different strategies, and overall the glamour division will become more respectable. You will also see less heavyweights coming in overweight. They will train harder if they know they have to throw more punches.