Thread: How much clinching is excessive? What is the distinction with inside fighting?

When should initiating clinching/holding warrant a point deduction? What is the distinction between clinching and inside fighting? Should it ever result in a disqualification?

A point was deducted from Andre Berto in his fight with Luis Collazo for clinching twenty times. Andre Dirrell had a point deducted for clinching thirty five times against Carl Froch.

Here is a video showing Devon Alexander initiating clinching a total of 119 times during his ten-round fight with Maidana. No points were deducted from Devon Alexander.



Below is a video showing Andre Ward clinching in his fight against Mikkel Kessler. It argues that fifteen clinches should warrant a point deduction and thirty clinches should warrant a second point deduction. Andre Ward clinched eighty-eight total times against Mikkel Kessler without a point deduction.



Boxers with a well-documented propensity toward clinching are: Andre Berto, Bernard Hopkins, Andre Ward, Shane Mosley etc.

good thread mate

i think dirrell was very negative and deserved deductions

the ward kessler fight was shocking that no points were deducted considering the clinching and headbutting

people will disagree with me on this but boxing is entertainment and fighters with unentertaining styles should be punished

Originally Posted by erics44

good thread mate

i think dirrell was very negative and deserved deductions

the ward kessler fight was shocking that no points were deducted considering the clinching and headbutting

people will disagree with me on this but boxing is entertainment and fighters with unentertaining styles should be punished

. I agree that clinching leads to boring boxing.

However, in-fighting does not lead to boring boxing. There's a difference.

When I watched the Maidana vs. Alexander fight, I was so pissed off that I had to make a video about it.



I think that's the video, although I'm not sure.

Originally Posted by Rantcatrat

Originally Posted by erics44

good thread mate

i think dirrell was very negative and deserved deductions

the ward kessler fight was shocking that no points were deducted considering the clinching and headbutting

people will disagree with me on this but boxing is entertainment and fighters with unentertaining styles should be punished

. I agree that clinching leads to boring boxing.

However, in-fighting does not lead to boring boxing. There's a difference.

I agree, a fight full of infighting can be a very entertaining fight

Originally Posted by erics44

Originally Posted by Rantcatrat

Originally Posted by erics44

good thread mate

i think dirrell was very negative and deserved deductions

the ward kessler fight was shocking that no points were deducted considering the clinching and headbutting

people will disagree with me on this but boxing is entertainment and fighters with unentertaining styles should be punished

. I agree that clinching leads to boring boxing.

However, in-fighting does not lead to boring boxing. There's a difference.

I agree, a fight full of infighting can be a very entertaining fight

I appreciate the compliment by the way. Sorry in advance for .

Good question.

The distinction between clinching and inside fighting is that clinching is just holding the opponent with the odd rabbit punching and inside fighting is getting close to an opponent to land punches. Inside fighters work their way in to fight in the pocket and land hooks and uppercuts, like Joe Frazier did. Clinching is what Ruiz did, in simple terms. A lot of the time inside fighting is confused with holding and hitting, like what Ricky Hatton did a lot of.