When did fightin out of a clinch become illegal???

Mosley/DLH I in the 12th round had a lot of fighting out of clinches. It was an amazing round too.

I know it wasnt illegal but thats what came to mind.

 

op

12 pages...

 

Leonard used to do that. But he would act like he was going to clinch and then land quick inside punches. Funny thing is with Hearns in 1989, Leonard did that, and then Hearns started doing the same thing back to him, like Tommy got an idea to try Leonard's trick back and it worked well. He was almost mirroring Leonard. Those two guys were probably the most evenly matched fighters ever in speed and everything else. But the clinching stuff was interesting. Ray was a master of trying to hit off the break or almost break.

 

I think hitting in the clinch is sort of bending the rules. If the ref doesn't enforce it, then it's fair I'm sure. The ref can force no holding and hitting. Marciano was basically a master at this. And Dempsey was damn brutal in the clinches.

 

Its up on youtube. Watch it yourself. He was leading with the head pretty regularly, 5 is huge undrestatement.

 

I'm not sure its illegal, its fighting on the break which is illegal.

Kessler probably hasn't faced it because none of his opponents were reknowned inside fighters.

 

...or more. :yep

For the record, Ward fought very smart. He did a great job of not letting Kessler get the space he needs to get off with his punches and it's not Ward's fault Kessler didn't protect himself coming out of the clinches and got hit repeatedly. They do say "protect yourself at all times" don't they? There's nothing illegal about it. A fighter can punch after or during a clinch all he wants, except if the ref comes in to break the fighters.

Maybe the ref should have warned Ward once or twice to not come in with his head so much. But other than that, arguments like "the ref helped Ward" and "Ward cheated" are just excuses. Ward beat the daylights out of Kessler and that's all there is to it.

 

LMAO @ this guy being the most "experienced" fighter in the punch:rofl:rofl:rofl

 

I've was wondering this as well. After the fight was over I thought Ward put on an excellent performance, I come here and there are a few people on here that are talking about how Ward is a cheater. Yea, there were a couple of headbutts, but that's what happens in Boxing. You are a fighter you have to overcome obstacles sometimes. There was a great thread on here talking about why there were a couple of headbutts in the fight which was a great explanation other than "Ward is a dirty fighter." Then you had haters whining about how there was too much holding. I didn't think so, it was great strategy. Dirrell held too much against Froch, Berto held too much against Collazo, Ward didn't.

 

They only replayed the two that opened the gashes up.. would that be why??

By the end of the 7th kessler had been butted so often he said he couldnt see properly.

I just picked a round at random from the first vid of the fight I found on youtube....

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJY3RlRr1jQ[/ame]

The first round on that was the third. Heads come together at 0.25, 0.32, 1.39, 1.52, 1.54, 2.21, 2.31, 2.43, 3.10 and 3.16. Although pretty much all or em were wards head being down and going into Kessler's most of them were very normal but 2 were not so innocent.

The ones at 1.52 looked like a pretty straight foreward butt to me. The one at 3.16 was dangerous and looked like it did some damage.

So random round and 2 butts, one of em looked bad. Multiply that by 10 rounds and you have a guy with both his eyelids split.

 

Point made.

But don't you think Ward was the better man and deserved to win? How would you act if you were the ref?

Funny that you mentioned what Kessler said about not being able to see properly after the 7th or 8th. I thought round 9 was one of his best rounds.