Please only answer if you know the answer! Is grabing/holding legal or not in Boxing?

Rules

To be a fair stand-up boxing match in a 24-foot ring, or as near that size as practicable.

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The rounds to be of three minutes duration, and one minute's time between rounds.
If either man falls through weakness or otherwise, he must get up unassisted, 10 seconds to be allowed him to do so, the other man meanwhile to return to his corner, and when the fallen man is on his legs the round is to be resumed and continued until the three minutes have expired. If one man fails to come to the scratch in the 10 seconds allowed, it shall be in the power of the referee to give his award in favour of the other man.
A man hanging on the ropes in a helpless state, with his toes off the ground, shall be considered down.
No seconds or any other person to be allowed in the ring during the rounds.
Should the contest be stopped by any unavoidable interference, the referee to name the time and place as soon as possible for finishing the contest; so that the match must be won and lost, unless the backers of both men agree to draw the stakes.
The gloves to be fair-sized boxing gloves of the best quality and new.
Should a glove burst, or come off, it must be replaced to the referee's satisfaction.
A man on one knee is considered down and if struck is entitled to the stakes.
That no shoes or boots with spikes or sprigs be allowed. [6]
The contest in all other respects to be governed by revised London Prize Ring Rules.

 

also

Rules of Boxing

The rules of boxing vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and on whether it is an amateur or professional bout. A violation of the following rules is considered a foul, and can result in a point deduction or disqualification:

You cannot hit below the belt,

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, trip, kick, headbutt, wrestle, bite, spit on, or push your opponent.
You cannot hit with your head, shoulder, forearm, or elbow.
You cannot hit with an open glove, the inside of the glove, the wrist, the backhand, or the side of the hand.
You cannot punch your opponent's back, or the back of his head or neck (rabbit punch), or on the kidneys (kidney punch).
You cannot throw a punch while holding on to the ropes to gain leverage.
You can't hold your opponent and hit him at the same time, or duck so low that your head is below your opponent's belt line.
When the referee breaks you from a clinch, you have to take a full step back; you cannot immediately hit your opponent--that's called "hitting on the break" and is illegal.
You cannot spit out your mouthpiece on purpose to get a rest.
If you score a knockdown of your opponent, you must go to the farthest neutral corner while the referee makes the count.
If you "floor" your opponent, you cannot hit him when he's on the canvas.
A floored boxer has up to ten seconds to get back up on his feet before losing the bout by knockout.
A boxer who is knocked down cannot be saved by the bell in any round, depending upon the local jurisdiction's rules.
A boxer who is hit with an accidental low blow has up to five minutes to recover. If s/he cannot continue after five minutes, s/he is considered knocked out.
If the foul results in an injury that causes the fight to end immediately, the boxer who committed the foul is disqualified.
If the foul causes an injury but the bout continues, the referee orders the judges to deduct two points from the boxer who caused the injury.
If an unintentional foul causes the bout to be stopped immediately, the bout is ruled a "no contest" if four rounds have not been fully completed. (If the bout was scheduled for four rounds, then three rounds must have been completed.) If four rounds have been completed, the judges' scorecards are tallied and the fighter who is ahead on points is awarded a technical decision. If the scores are even, it will be called a "technical draw."
If a boxer is knocked out of the ring, he gets a count of 20 to get back in and on his feet. He cannot be assisted.
In some jurisdictions the standing eight-count or the three knockdown rule also may be in effect.
In other jurisdictions, only the referee can stop the bout.

 

It's illegal to physically hold your opponent, but it's not illegal to smother him. I think it's a fine line and hard for refs to tell if a fighter is actually using his arms to prevent his opponent from moving or if he is just smothering him.

Wlad does hold a lot though.

 

I think its one of the biggest problems with boxing: Too much holding. Its not penalized or warned for enough.
But it is difficult to see for the ref sometimes. You see the sly (experienced?) guys hold with the opposite arm to the side that the ref is on. It happens a lot - you see the boxer telling the ref that he's not holding but the camera sees that he actually is on the opposite side.

There is also too much complacency by the held opponent. It is a break mid-round. The held boxer should try like mad to get out of the hold...Duran style...and seeing this action the ref should issue a warning.

But there is referee discretion involved as well. Hurt boxers holding on is a little different as opposed to holding as a deliberate tactic.

 

Holding behind the head is illegal but was an Ali tradmark, what do people want the ref to do? Stop the fight and get killed by the fans?

 

agree, too much holding is one of the reasons for **** fights. Recently saw pavlik-lopez live on the pac undercard and it was hard to stomach

 

yep. Wlad does this a lot as well, but you know how passive-aggressive German fans are.

 

one guy constantly hugging the other.. fvckin gay

 

Only legal when ur hurt

 

I think refs are more lenient on illegal moves when used defensively and not to hit your opponent. I got that idea from expertboxing.com
Like if you push your opponent's head down to keep him off of you, then he won't trip as much, but if you do it and then punch with your other hand, he may get mad

 

u could be disqualified for holding excessively

 

Refs should deduct points for it, and DQ for it if it continues too much.
It is all on the ref. You can't really fault a fighter for doing it, since refs tend to ignore this foul.
I don't understand why the sanctioning bodies, tv stations, commissions, etc don't put more pressure on the ref to enforce the rules.