Is inside fighting becoming a lost art?

Yes inside fighting is a dying art, but the whole game is in regression because we're running out of true teachers. Inside game is very difficult to master. But you can at least know your way on the inside, know how you can negate your weaknessess there and get out. Fighters can't even do that now.

They don't even know how to clinch, how to break out etc. Back in the day the fighters who weren't good on the inside, at least were smart enough and knew how to not get hit or taken full advantage of when they were there. Ali for example wasn't a good inside fighter but his IQ was high and he knew how to hide those weaknesses.

I think more and more fighters are relying on their feet for their first line of defence and even their whole defence is their legs. If that's taken away they haven't a clue.

There is very little standing off centre, there's too much squaring up, Not enough educated jabbing. The jab as a weapon has really been lost. And not many fighters today know how to go to the body effectively.

If a fighter has these flaws it's up to the trainer who's his eyes to correct them. But the trainers today will tell him about it and that will be it. If your fighter is being hit with a certain punch etc, as a trainer you should replicate that with the mitts for days at a time. Everything your fighter does should be instinctive and not something he has to think about. If you just tell him about it, he will think before he does the correct thing. If he practices doing the right thing constantly, once he sees it in the ring, he won’t think he will react.

Compactness is understood now, they take it to mean just covering up or tucking your elbows, you see fighters who actually blind themselves by putting their gloves in front of their face. So amateurish.

- There's not enough bending of the knees, instead if they even bend at all they bend at the waist too much. Bending knees gives a better defensive base and creates leverage on shorter punches. Short punching is lost too. Only Hopkins throws proper short punches on the inside. Those 6 inch punches as they're called.

- There's no proper chin to chest tuck. The chin should be tucked under the shoulder. Todays fighters have their head on a swivel and bring it up too much. The old timers use to walk around the civilian streets with the chin tucked and even eat dinner with their chin tucked, lol. That's no joke, it's how important this craft was to them. Learning it properly.

Fighters today are not learning their craft. It's why someone who does like Andre Ward stands out like a sore thumb.

There's too much of all this high tech cross training nonsense. Tire throwing and bungee pulling, not much wrong with doing it but fighters can’t forget that they BOX. That's what they seem to have done.

There's too much relying on athletecism. No one apart from a select few now, understands how to make it look like you're doing more than you're actually doing. You don’t learn that from weights and cords, you learn that boxing.

- Distance and range is not understood now, back them even average fighters could be masters of range and distance. Some great fighters like Monzon got by on it.

- There's too much overextending. Rather then using leverage and body rotations. They don't know how to follow through properly, as a result we're getting less murderous punchers.

- Pivoting is another HUGELY lost art. Pivoting is the easiest way to defuse someone on the inside, fighters don't even know how to pivot to the side. Pivoting opens ups openings, it also changes your location.

- No more truly slick fighters.

So lack of inside fighting is just part of this whole regression of skills within the game, and as i said it comes back to the trainers. And there being no true all round teachers.

The trainers are not good enough teachers to correct the mistakes. A trainer may not be able to build the perfect fighter but you can hide his flaws enough where he will be very successful.

Sorry for going on, but that's just some of my thoughts on this.

 

No need to apologise, I'm glad you took the time to type it.:good

 

Yeah, please don't apologise Slip, glad to see someone is seeing the same regressions as I am, here have a

It's not just inside fighting though. I have genuinely seen better journeyman in old fight films as I've seen supposedly 'top fighters' nowadays, there are also exceptions to the rule but it's not one of the most enjoyable era's from a fight perspective.

 

As I've said many times, a lot of people think 'pure boxing' is staying well outside of punching range and being very negative.

3 easy examples: Haye; Khan; Dirrell.

 

Epic Post, One of best this year mate. The bent knees thing is something i'm doing when shadowboxing. I watch the great inside fighters and they all dip the knees inside to work.

 

He did come inside, but i don't think he was that great on the inside. Joe Frazier for example was a lot better a inside fighter.

He allowed himself to be tied up on the inside. He didn't work his way out after being tied up, he would allow the ref to break him up and then reset and go back to his programmed back and forth bopping rhythm.

This made him square up late in fights. As a result he wasn't the same after 4 or 5 rounds. Even when he was younger, look at the Tony Tucker, Bonecrusher, James Tillis and Ferguson fights.

People assume he was great on the inside, because he was a short pressure fighter with a big punch.

 

Cheers, fellas. :good

 

Hey, I largely agree. As I said, it depends upon what ones definition of an inside fighter is.

My thoughts of him are bopping inside, though that's different from standing toe to toe. As you say, he could be tied up as the Bonecrusher fight showed, not one of Tyson's most exciting fights it has to be said. In my view he was a sort of just out of inside range type of fighter... hard to explain really...

 

Yeah, but Bonecrusher literally just tied him up, it didn't help him do any affective work. A lot of fighters would look less than stellar against such a terrified opponent.

 

basically the entire general forum

i remember the days when the now floyd mayweather fans used to say how Corey Spinks was a real boxer and if you didn't like him youw eren't a boxing fan along with sweet science this and sweet science that.

idiots dont know that defence is only one aspect of the sweet science.

 

More like idiots think staying well outside of punching range is defence.

 

i disagree with everything in this thread alot of rose tinted glasses around here.Still plenty of fighters who understand inside boxing,pivoting,slick boxing,proper distance, importance of working the body and chin placement like rios,cotto,canelo,ward,moreno,bute etc.
You guys seemed to have forget fighters like Joe Bugner,Barkley,Tex Cobb , Henry Akinwande,Clinton Woods,Pipino Cuevas,carnera,Ruiz,Vito Antuofermo ever entered the ring

The game has always had guys who had skills,talent and guys who lack in those areas but make up for it with heart and balls

 

Refs need to **** off and let guys fight on the inside. Even if they are tied up then let them fight and grapple their way out.

 

One thing is that two of the biggest trainers in the sport right now are one a specialist in tall, rangy outside fighting in Steward and two a guy that works mostly with in-and-out fighters that go in offensive spurts and don't stay in, at all, in Roach.

 

Canelo and Rios? Seriously?

As for those guys, they are lucky that they are more adept at weight cutting than others. 24 hour weigh in's were the beginning of the end for depth in ability.

Rose tinted glasses? No chance. Fact is boxing does not have that much depth anymore. Less fighters, more championship, less talent required.