Cross Armed Defense Discussion

Writing only as a layman I found the cross arm a must against one frequent rib injuring opponent I had. After practicing it for several years I found it was great for throwing short and easy to land sneak right hands from. When skilled in it almost any short punch can be stopped with it, head or body, hooks, uppercuts, jabs, short rights, and as mentioned the punches thrown out of it are hard to see. From longer range punches can be blocked but not much of an offense can be generated.

 

It looks far more difficult to counter punch out of for one.

 

joe frazier, marvis frazier, and bert cooper used it..

 

joe frazier used it to a great effect especially to land his left hook

 

Yeah, it worked for Frazier with that left hook. Some fighters pulled it off, I'm not a big fan though.

 

Paulino Uzcudun, like Frazier, sustained an injury to his left arm which prevented him from extending it fully, and he devised his cross armed guard partly as a concession to that.

Former Uzcudun opponent Max Baer used it liberally against Schmeling, immediately crossing his right against his head after missing the German with it, taking Schmeling's vaunted right hand counter out of their match.

 

Ever Hammer used it to great effectiveness against Benny Leonard. Waded in almost all fight behind it and gave Benny hell. There's a great pic of him utilizing it in that fight somewhere.

 

I think Frazier works it well with him up and down head movement.

 

Cross-armed works best when you have the type of arms to do so. Thick arms like Foreman helps. I've got skinny arms and I'm better off employing the standard upright or using a little bit of the Philly shell (only when on the move).

 

Allen Rosenfeld made a very curious comment in his Charley Burley book, saying he felt Foreman would have won his bout with ali if he used a cross-arm defence.

So my point is how important is defensive posture?

 

I like it. It works for me. Very comftorable style.

 

...the negatives of the cross arm, whats good about it can be whats bad about it if your facing someone who hit like the Rock against Moore. Theres little parying or deflecting in the cross arm, most punches are taken full on the forearms and biceps, not often a problem unless the opponent hits so hard he can injure them. From longer range the cross arm is leaky against a long fast jab or down the pike right hand, because of that I can't see how the cross arm would have added much to Foreman against Ali.

 

I couldnt master it ,and I am not a fan of it in others.
Moore said it worked against him versus Ali as Ali just threw head shots that landed on the top of his crouching head and "discombobulated him".
Likewise I dislike the peek .a boo style, I think it obscures and hides punches coming .
Foreman never slipped punches he relied on his open glove to catch them, likewise Norton,Fullmer had little head movement at the best of times so it worked for him as at least he could block some of the incoming.

But whatever works for some one is ok I suppose.

 

When did this happen to Frazier? Because I notice that the cross-armed use was prominent in Manilla, but absent in a lot of his previous fights. Do you know when the change took place Duodenum?