Quote Originally Posted by OumaFan
What is the deal with excessive holding not being penalized

Is it legal or illegal? Obviously its legal, I mean look at how rarely a guy is warned, not penalized, warned. It hardly ever happens, much less a guy being penalized, that pretty much never happens.

Its just odd, boxing has a rule which is totally ignored. I can't think of anything comparable in other sports. And strangely not many people seem to care, I can't think of many people on here that bitch about it, except for maybe LordsGym, unless Ricky Hatton or John Ruiz or maybe Wlad are fighting. But it happens a lot. Look at a guy like Zahir Raheem, its a disgrace to the sport. Its pretty much saying, look I can't fight worth a shit on the inside, so instead of learning how to fight, I'll just excessively hold and referees won't give a shit.

This is one of my major problems with boxing, to me its as big a problem as any. Would boxing not be more exciting if excessive holding was penalized, seems pretty simple, it would be.

And before Wlad fans protest, the fighter that pissed me off last night on this was Travis Simms.
Good post CC # 687 . Nothing like excessive holding to ruin a good match. it’s a flagrant foul that should be penalized more , it simply snuffs the momentum of a match, . Jay Nady and few others refs are attuned to the situation, they do a great job policing it, others need to follow suit.

To me holding is a foul when its used as a strategic tactic, another words when a pattern start to develop . John Ruiz , any Many Steward trained fighter.. Manny actually teaches his fighters to do this, He single handily ruined the Heavyweight division as far as I’m concerned. . I noticed a lot of holding in watching Simms fight Saturday night as well . , Travis fought like a snuff queen. , holding every time his opponent moved in. Glad the ref finally got him for it. a frustrating watch. Sometimes a fighter's got to complain to the ref about it. If you bring it to his attention he will start taking notice of it.

As for Ricky Hatton , I don’t see it as a tactic to stop the action, It’s more a by product of jockeying for position on the inside . Rick is just looking to bring his opponents hands down and make punching opportunities for himself, its not to stop the action. Ricky is out to destroy his opponent every minute of every round