HBO Arm Length

[JonnieJ]

I completely disagree. What the HBO "arm-legth" measure measures is who has the edge punching the other guy's shoulder. WHO CARES! The single most important punch in controlling distance (perhaps the single most important step to winning a fight) is the jab to the head. So the distance across the shoulder (ignored by arm length) matters a great deal. REACH is the far better measure in demonstrating that.

Of course the best might well be the distance from a closed fist to the side of one's face when facing forward.

The other issue I have with it is, as a history buff, I have no way to compare "arm-length" of a current fighter with fighters of the past. But that is a seconday point.

The only thing that is covered by reach that isn't by arm length is the distance between the shoulders which doesn't matter at all except maybe fore power. When you reach out your arm the shoulder is fully extended in any direction, like a fully extended punch except maybe further because the arm is completely straight. ANything to do with shoulder extension is encorporated in arm length.
But like you said later, all that matters is where your feet are. Pacquiao has a tiny reach by either measure, and he fights at a distance better than almost anyone because he moves in so much and commits so fully to his punches.

That's just not true. The distance between the shoulder and the face is ignored. Those inches are as critical as any other inches unless you think the jab to the head isn't the most important single punch in boxing.

Manny's reach may be small, but his arm length is pretty good for a guy of his size (25in I believe), not only that but when you fully extend your arm you also strech out your shoulder, so arm length includes the part of the shoulder that adds to your reach (the length of the collar bone area is not really important). Wingspan doesn't matter much, imo but arm length does. The only sport wingspan is relevant to is swimming.