Rolling your head with the punch...?

Usually it's a last ditch effort. It often has great advantages though; a lot of times if you take the sting off a punch but let it keep going, a fighter will leave their hand out there, unused to the awkward feeling of only half-way landing a shot-leaves them wide open for a counter.

Toney rolling with the right here makes Ruiz reach, and he pays for it by eating a right of Toney's:

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It also lets you sneak shots in punching with an opponent. Slipping and countering is a two-step process. It can work really well, but sometimes it's useful to time a simultaneous shot that's even harder to see coming, given that the opponent is throwing right at that moment. Rolling with the shot allows you to get something like that off without getting rocked and blinded by its full force.

Here, JMM rolls with Diaz's left towards the inside, landing an overhand-right from out of view, which eventually leads to Diaz's demise:

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NP.

The rolling is from Marquez. Marquez dips his head slightly so that Diaz's left lands on the top of his head, and Marquez leans with the momentum of the shot while turning into his right hand blow. It's not the most obvious of rolls but he takes away the potential for a solid blow landing on the chin or temple.

 

It was taught to me in the '40s by SRR at Stillman's Gym, BB. It worked terrific; leaving your chin seemingly unprotected,'n inviting target.

A great way to have a guy over-commit to his haymaker right hand and crack him back with a right that he walks into.

 

What your opponent didn't know was you were intentionally drawing his haymaker. So, after practicing the move endlessly in sparring (getting caught flush many times) I mastered it, letting his haymaker fall harmlessly over my shoulder.

I loved suckering opponents with it.

 

Rolling with the punch used to be taught more, it's not done as much now because it's difficult to properly master, (if you're not rolling with it right you're going to get clocked by a good shot) and because judges are far too likely to score it as a punch landed for your opponent, so dodging altogether or blocking tend to get taught as more effective ways to score points and deny them to your opponent.

 

I was taught that by my coach to roll with the punch if possible. It does take quite a bit out of a punch. Now obviously it is not something that you want to practice taking punches to your head to master and is rare to be able to use it to your advantage on command bc if you can see the punch then you might as well block it or dodge it BUT as any body part your head will react on feel and movement so naturally you will roll with the punches.

 

LaMotta was pretty good at it too. That's one of the reasons he still has his marbles.

 

Not sure that constitutes as a roll, Marquez does usually look to take shots on his forehead i.e puts his head down, if he can't use his legs or parry. Only time i've seen him roll was in the Mayweather fight on a Mayweather right cross, he has one of the stiffest necks i've seen, hardy forehead though

Anyway, rolling is great once you've mastered it, every defensive wizard uses it.
Barrera is a mexican who's rolling quickly jumps to mind.

 

Jorge Linares was rolling his head frequently in the DeMarco fight. It was effective at first but as soon as DeMarco started to break him down Linares' head roll was his downfall.

 

In this sequence Marquez wasn't rolling with the punch at all, IMO. He bowed down a little bit to land his counter-right more effectively and got caught by a decent jab.