Who are some fighter who were great at inside fighting that i can study and do you guys have any handy hints or little tricks or combos you find work for you fighting on the inside.
James Toney. A nice "trick" (creating an opening) is hooking to the body, followed by an uppercut upstairs. Right hook - right uppercut. The hook pulls the elbows to the side and clears the path for an uppercut. In general things like that help you pull open the defence of someone who's in full guard.
Mayweather and Hopkins can show you how to fight on the inside as the weaker, perhaps more slick fighter. Guys like Castillo and Hatton can show you how to fight on the inside as the stronger fighter. A blend of both is best. Inside fighting is a 3 point subject - shortening your punches, physicality and the tricks. 1) Shorter punches is exactly that. The same punches but shorter so as to adapt to the smaller distance. 2) Physicality is simply the strength and wrestling aspect. The clinch, physical manipulation, your balance, the nudging, the footwork etc 3) The tricks is things like Mayweather sticking the forearm in the face, Hopkins hitting the hips, going below the belt, hitting and holding etc You could call this dirty boxing.
Not sure what category, but another one is pushing his elbows inwards with his fist, if you do this hard you'd spin him but done subtly it just keeps him from using that arm or push him off balance a little. A pro fighter I sparred a while ago did that with his knee against mine. He kept me on the ropes like that. Not that I minded, I wasn't planning on leaving the ropes anyway as I got the best of it.
It slots into category 2 and 3. They sort of overlap. You aren't really supposed to clinch but then it's done so widely that it's not really illegal, more just frowned upon if used in the wrong way. Pushing the elbow is a trick cos it's one of the more unexpected things to do but then again you are manipulating them physically so it can slot under physicality. You'll often get guys tuck up in half guard and try to flick you with their left arm. Push that elbow in, step around them and dig to the body or head.
