The Evolution from Low Gaurd to High Gaurd

An 1889 aricle by Billy Edwards on the effect of early gloves on the sport of boxing.

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Thanks, Janitor! Cool piece.

 

Damn 8oz gloves hurt enough. 4oz would kill me!

 

Let's not forget also that boxing gloves were designed to protect a fighter's hands as well as an opponents face. With his hands well taped and padded gloves on, a boxer could let fly with more punches without as much concern for breaking his hands. In the days of bare knuckle fighting a fighter had to be very careful about where and when he let a punch go and it was better to block a shot from the outside as opposed to keeping a high guard near his face. A human fist doesn't offer much protection in that type of guard so it was better to stop it early before it got that close. This style was still used in the early days of gloved boxing as the gloves were rather small compared to todays gloves and didn't offer as much protection in close. When glove technology improved and the gloves got bigger and more padded then the guard became higher as the bigger glove offered more protection to a fighters face and a fighter could let fly with a greater array of punches withuot as much fear of breaking his hands on his opponents skull which is much harder than the relatively brittle carpal and metacarpal bones of the hand. As always, form follows function which is why the old style of boxing wouldn't work in todays game. Bring back 4 ounce gloves or bare knuckles and it would.

 

That example of Tunney falling against the ropes happened to him once in 81 fights,I see we are now going to be treated to boxing expertise lessons from you Suzie,I was boxing 20 years before you were born as Im sure some of the other posters were ,Its just possible we allready know the rudiments of defence.Dont get too carried away with the Petronelli gym will you.Ive fought with different size gloves and boot leg with just electrical tape on my hands ,you ought to try it ,itll sure make you wary of catching a shot to the head!

 

If you can get clips of Jack Johnson and some of the old masters, you can see that they were really adept at slipping, countering, parrying, and other lost arts. I think part of it is that the old fights were longer and it is tiring to hold your guard up for 20 plus rounds in the blazing sun. The fights back then were on holidays like July 4 and Labor Day, since that is the only time people were off of work to watch the fights. And I think California and Nevada were the only legal places, so it was often scorching hot for the big fights.

Great posts of the high-guard defense from several modern greats!

 

Suzy,

Just to get an example of the art of high guard that is prevalent now, i youtubed Klitchsko and come up with round 5 of Brewster Klitchsko. ONly problem is that neither fighter used a high guard! both kept their hands down low. Look closely, for most of the time, their guard is low. Klitchsko actually keeps his hands pointing directly to the ground for a lot of the time. Bad example though, so i clicked on the Lewis Tyson fight. Here i saw a good example of the high guard. Only problem is, that it was from Mike Tyson. And the guy using the low guard, Lennox lewis won the fight convincingly. Then i tried the last round of Mercer vs Lewis. Again, Lewis utilised the low guard in this round. Mercer tried a higher guard, for most of the round, though he did tend to drop his lead hand, with a high right hand. Looking at those fighters, it was all a bit confusing. Which modern superheavy fights do you suggest i look at to get a good example of the effectiveness of the high guard? Lennox certainly seems to have some success with the low guard, Did he always use the low guard?

 

I don't know which rounds of Lewis-Mercer you've watched, but most if not all of the time Mercer was in close, Lewis had his guard up, blocking most of the stuff coming in. A longer range, of course, he kept his hands low because he could afford to do so.

About Klitschko-Brewster, Wladimir kept his hands up most of the time, despite being exhausted... Brewster isn't exactly the most technically correct fighter, but still has his guard much higher than the older timers.

 

I only saw the final rounds (again) of both this afternoon. Vlad definitely didnt have his hands up in that round (have a look on you tube). I will have a look at other rounds again when i get the chance. Lewis against Mercer final round also was mostly a low guard, particularly with the front hand by Lewis. If i recall from last time i watched the the fight, Lewis vs Vitali featured two low guards (although i could be wrong). Given that i only watched the final rounds, is the low guard solely due to exhaustion, is it to save energy, or is it just laziness?