BELLY They can be hurt to the body though Heavies rarely find a path for powershots to the body. especially hooks. Inside fighting at HW is basically clinchwork or getting stuck behind a high guard and letting a little fat man like Ruiz batter you (AJ) Fury whips in some great hooks to the body at range for a big man...when he can. Joyce works the body well if you let him get in distance.
Too tempting to head-hunt when the power is there to put lights out with a single punch. Most decent HW, merely because of their size/weight, have the potential to end or, at least, turn a fight with a single shot to the head. Also, footwork. Fighters need to close the range to target the body and HWs are much slower to do this before getting wrapped up in the clinch. And closing the gap to target the body leaves a fighter vulnerable to a counter to the head. Which takes us back to my original point...
Andy Ruiz landed a lot of fantastic body shots on Joshua that made Joshua drop his hands and try to take a breather.
The higher the weight, the higher some guys tend to pull up their trunks. Big Baby Miller's trunks were pulled up under his armpits so only his nipples were showing. Fury does it, too.
When you throw body shots you are opening yourself up to a potential head shot and these dudes can BANG. It takes a decently placed bodyshot to really hurt a guy, whereas most bodyshots have this cumulative effect of draining stamina as you are essentially throwing off the dudes breathing rhythm. Even a glancing headshot at heavyweight can cause a flash kd or off balance situation.
lennox vs holyfield 1- while that fight lewis clearly won, yeah, holyfield should have almost been disqualified for hitting below the nipples. lewis' trunks looked like he was wearing a breast plate they were so high.
vasilly jirov carried his body shots over for his brief time at heavy weight. forget the fight, but he did knock out an opponent with a vicious left hook to the liver.
To be fair though, during referee's instructions, Holyfield was told where he could hit. The "high shorts" thing is a bit of a fallacy.
The chances of knocking out a guy by hitting his head are so high at HW that it is not worth it to try to knock him out punching his liver. It is more risky and difficult to punch the liver than to punch the head. Punching the body is important though, but specially to create openings in your oponent's guard to be able to hit his head easier. Being Joe Louis the absolute master here, imho.
