I just rewatched Bivol against Zurdo. What do you guys think about Bivol's high guard defense? I think it's superb when combined with his movement. I like it a lot. Smith, Canelo and Zurdo could not penetrate Bivol's guard. Canelo tried to break his guard by hitting it as hard as he could. He made a big mistake. He doesn't punch hard enough to penetrate Bivol's guard. Landing on the guard is not a scoring shot. None of those blows Canelo landed scored. Thus, Bivol dominated the fight. How will this work against Beterbiev? I think Beterbiev has the power to punch straight through Bivol's guard. He will tear the shoulder right off. Get him to lower that guard and then smash him upside the noggin. I don't know if it's wise to put the earmuffs on against Beterbiev.
As a standard I don't like it because normally it's an amateurish last resort defence which you will still get hurt behind especially in higher weight classes. However Bivol uses his feet and his guard is used to draw opponents and he watches from behind it for openings. Usyk at cruiser also used to sit behind a high guard on the edge of range to draw an opponent, as did Floyd when he rarely walked at opponents. None of them would ever get within half an inch of range though. Usyk has occasionally ring circled behind a high guard after getting out of position which is the poorest example from the 3 aforementioned men who are typically always well positioned and rely on their feet as should ALL defence. Against Canelo Bivol sitting behind his high guard was basically a statement piece of "C'mon show me what you've got little man" then when Canelo blows his load off the guard would get walked down. You see alot of our British fighters who are straight out of the book in the amateur system try to defend themselves from behind a high guard late in fights when they're tired to little use because they become stationary targets.
High guard becomes riskier as you move up in weight. In the lower weights? Have at it. At 175 and higher these are freakishly strong men. You don't want them banging on your shoulders and gloves all night long.
