Problem I had in sparring tonight

[remy]

Tough to answer you without watching you in the ring. Did he have a reach advantage on you, was he much taller? OK, one thing I did note; You picked up on 'timing' the guy (knowling when he was going to punch). Tha's a big advantage and I have to wonder why you did not use that against him.
Some questions a trainer would answer by watching you;
1. What type guard do you use.
2. How well do you pick and parry
3. How well do you slip and move
4. Would closing in on him and going to the body have smothered his advantage?

If you can find some old videos of Mike Tyson, watch how he slips and sometimes goes down and circles his head to avoid head punches. In his day, anyone who threw a punch like you described, would find an Iron Mike glove coming in for a head or body shot.

1. I've recently switched to a palms facing outward guard with my rear hand in front of my face to catch jabs easier. Kinda like the stance that Sugar Ray Robinson used but I keep my hands up high. The merits of the stance made sense to me, so I thought I'd give it a try and so far I've had a bit of success with it, although my experience is still very limited.

2. I'm still very much a beginner, so I don't pick and parry all that well. I've been coached on how to do it correctly, but I need practice.

3. Same as above.

4. I did try to move in to cutoff his range and go to the body, and there was a bit of success there too. Unfortunately we don't have access to a proper ring yet, so when we reach the edges of the mat we stop and move back to the centre. If we had ropes then it'd be a whole different ballgame cos I'd be able to keep the pressure on him.

I've received heaps of great replies to this thread so I'll keep these things in mind next time I'm sparring and let you know how it goes. Unfortunately my arm is slightly injured so it may take a while, but hopefully it won't be too long before I can get back in there

[Boxer4life]

def throw alot of feints, these are magical but very many boxers fail to use them, guys like maywaether ad hopkins do this great, aswell as jones in his prime, and you might wanna record yourself as you might be telegraphing your punches a bit, a problem i had to fix in my early days cuz i just had enough of gettin timed and clcoked

[Gocougars3]

If you like to jab to the head, which can be a problem against south paws, watch your lead hand position. If you position it outside his he can't knock it down. Some fighters hold their leads higher and farther forward against south paws.

Another strategy is to move slightly to your right, keep your weight back and fire between his gloves. Some of the Eastern Bloc fighters have that jab.

Mirrored fighters don't like lead upper cuts. Michael Spinks had a great lead upper.

[Alexbit]

nice stuff,.