old timers and clinching...why so much

Different ruleset.

 

I agree. Longer scheduled fights, smaller gloves (making blocking more difficult on the inside), and different tactics used under different rules and different refereeing.

If given sufficient time and modern trainers, I believe most of the old-time boxers could have made the adjustment to modern rules, equipment, and training methods. In most cases, talent is talent in any generation...in my opinion. As Janitor says: "A sock on the jaw is still a sock on the jaw."

 

It depends on what period in time you're talking about. In the late 1800's and very early 1900's there was a lot of clinching, mainly due to the length of the fights and wrestling still being a part of the sport as it had been during the bareknuckle days. There were still fighters who didn't clinch as much but most fighters utilized it to their advantage. Notably Jim Jeffries and Jack Johnson wore down smaller men in the clinches.

By the mid 1900's, clinching was mainly used as a method of spoiling, like 40+ year old Hopkins does today. Clinch-fighting is a skill in itself even if it's not as impressive to watch as clean boxing. What better way to slow down an elusive opponent than by taking the fight to him in the clinches? Watch LaBarba and Battalino rough up the skilled Kid Chocolate for example. Sammy Angott was one of the best at this, evident in his win over then undefeated Willie Pep.

Muhammad Ali also used the clinch to great effect during the later part of his career in order to wear down aggressive opponents. You still have fighters like Ruiz, Hatton, Wladimir and Hopkins who clinch all the time.

 

What has this video to do with the fighters back then? :huh
Bareknuckle fights or fights who with very small gloves need a different punching technique than fights with the big gloves of today. Much less room for mistakes both in offense and defense. Injurying your hands or getting injuries from punches are far more probable.
Smaller gloves make it far harder to block. Watch the high guard of today this is not possible with the gloves of the 20s or 30s. Fighters back then had better footwork, headmovement and were able to parry punches (nearly a lost art today) on average - of course there are exceptions who can match the fighters of then in this but those are rare.
Look it like this, clinching was common and a normal part of the book only ten years before, so it is naturaaly that many fighter who learned from the trainers back then also learned clinching from them. And used it. Is it not?
No, smaller gloves need not to higher KOs. Smaller gloves lead to more cuts and broken bones but not more KOs. MMA fighters are not comparable to boxers. Boxers focus on their fists, MMA have to focus on much more an thus are much worse than boxers when it comes to boxing. Their punching is poor, their defence against punches is poor. Not comparable.

 

I think this is very accurate, but film footage is definately a factor,
even by the late 40s when it was definately damn near as good as it's going to get, there was still some poor footage,

but likewise the odd little jem from bygone days that somehow was filmed much better i.e Tont Canzoneri v Frankie Glick and some Lynch footage PROVES these guys from those eras were great fighters.

they were for real, the footage wasn't!

 

that's not a london prize ring fight.

if guys are willing to fight like that then why not go all the way and have a real london rules match.

winner take all
round ends when opponent knocked down
30 seconds to start up again

 

its also probably because you are watching on average a higher class of fighter (we don't keep film of the shitty ones). Call it a funny comment but top class fighters all know how to clinch affectively if they have too. This is true of any era.

 

Can I just say in most 'old timer' fights I have seen in the 1920s-1930s era, fighters may look like clinching alot but alot of brilliant inside work is taking place.

But seriously if you watch Barney Ross vs anyone, you will see in that era there wasnt alot of clinching.

 

Bigger gloves do not lessen the concussive force of punches to a great degree. This is a common misconception, and it's been thoroughly dispelled time and again through rigorous scientific testing. Gloves are there to protect the wearer's hands, first and foremost. Bigger gloves prevent cuts from happening some as another poster has already said (the material is partly responsible for that aswell). Smaller gloves, as seen in MMA, can be used to grab much like the gloves in earlier eras of boxing. It is significantly more difficult to employ modern blocking techniques with these because of their size so it was actually adviseable for the boxers then to parry and then get a hold of the wrists or arms. You don't see this in MMA because MMA practitioners know better as this tactic will expose them to knees or takedowns. We're talking about 3 very different sports.

 

I do box. I'm talking about concussive force here. You seem to have difficulty differentiating that with pain. Don't worry that is quite common.

Smaller gloves aren't used in sparring since they do tend to do more harm to a body, but they do not directly facilitate KO's. A knockout blow with 4oz. gloves is almost always a knockout blow with 10oz. gloves. This has been tested by scientists. Concussive force to the head is what makes a KO not pain.