Boxing Defense - High Guard (Starling, Wright, Abraham, Johnson, Clottey)

Personally, I like this defense. The main trouble is the networks and powers that be in boxing the last few decades do not. Exciting fighters that trade or show flash are what television likes. This style is about as far from flashy as it gets. Effectiveness is a whole different ballgame though.

Personally, I think lots of matches were never made with guys employing this defense. The boxers signed to exclusive deals and long term contracts do not shine against this style. Match their moneymaker against someone else and look for spectacular & not the high guard--thereby not getting lousy numbers in the ratings side of things.

 

Roccigiani was too easy to hit to the body because his elbows were held to high.

 

Sven ottke fits that mould.
Highly credentialed amateur, undefeated champion but pretty much ignored considering his accomplishments.

 

What that high guard does is allow a guy to walk down an opponent.

Ottke did it. Zero power and literally at best, sting on his right hand. That's about it. But he'd hold his arms up and his elbows reached down to his waist. Tucked that chin in nicely. Saw every punch coming and it was nearly impossible to catch him with a shot he didn't see. And the opponent would tee off on him and not penetrate that defense. Then the next thing you knew, the opponent was about 3x more fatigued than Sven & Ottke would walk them down. Beautiful.

What a lost art---walking down an opponent. And how effective it really is. Funny how tired it makes the guys used to going forward & having to use different muscles to back up.

 

Im thinking Felix Sturm was a better turtle sheller than Ottka.

Ottka tended to move in & out more rather than take the full shot on the shell like Sturm

 

In my opinion, this type of defense works best with a certain type of body.

Fighters that have shorter than average torso and longer than average arms can make this defense work.

You lean forward a bit and you have a cover-up type of defense with countering options.

The tradeoff is you leave the lower body open, so move away from the hook.

 

Absolutely.

A guy benefits from having a shorter trunk. And then the longer arms say from the elbow to the shoulder section. So when they cover up, they can cover the body at the same time. I thought Wright was a little too tall for this and gave up his body a little. But he could take a good body punch. He had a tendency to let opponents throw lots of body shots which he just ignored & shook off. His main trouble with this was the scorecards as opposed to the damage being suffered.

At any rate, I love the guys that walk down opponents. A good example is Morrison--the house fighter--against Purrity. Ross the Boss just walked him down. But that kind of style just does not work with the television networks & powers that be, does it?

 

Wright did cover his body well because he had such long arms.

 

Ike Quartey

 

I would say Daruiz held the high guard better than Rocco.

Dariuz fought like a roman infantry man . His jab was his spear and his high guard was his shield. SPQR

 

Eubank hit Rocchigiani in the body repeatedly in the title bout in the 90`s.

 

Quartey got hit far too much specifically in the DeLa Hoya and Winky bouts.

 

Not against McCallum and his defense also a lot tighter vs Benn than it was in his two fights vs Eubank otherwise Eubank would have found it very hard to hit Watson, who fought very badly in his first fight with Eubank but landed way more in their second bout.