Grabbing is illegal. A point should be taken off after 3 holds at least

Oh wow. Haha. Well, that's one way to get it done. Absolutely. Referees need to enforce the rules one way or another.

The point of grabbing is to stop your opponent punching you, often when hurt. If you take a knee then that's a point. Grabbing literally stops losing a point at times. It doesn't add excitement to a match, so refs should be trained to deduct points. Tony Weeks deducted a point from broner during the porter match for excessive clinches. Clinching is a sore eye for boxing, only time I think clinches should be used by a fighter is if he is trying to survive after being hurt bad. But if you do that hit and hold crap like Wlad and Floyd get lost. GGG vs DL, and Chocolatito vs Brian Viloria nobody was clinching that was the real sweet science, Choco and BV were going inside outside, phone booth, slip counter, counter no holding. pure boxing

I can understand a badly hurt boxer hanging on for dear life. Other than that I don't like holders and holders and hitters. Some boxers don't even throw punches until they grab the other guy and then they start punching him with one hand while holding with the other hand which is illegal but seldom enforced. Not only do most referees allow too much holding but they are way to slow to break up a clinch. There is this new thing that some referees do. Instead of breaking up the clinch they tell the boxers to fight their way out of the clinch. The referee has no right to tell the boxers how to fight other than not allowing anything illegal. I have never seen a time when the ref told boxers to fight their way out of a clinch that the boxers actually did fight their way out of the clinch. well stated and very keen observation

As long as they Break when the Ref says break, I could careless! What would be even better than to b1tch to the ref like a pu$$y about it? Would be if guys learned how to fight inside so that they can take matters into their own hands. New Rules are not going to be put in place so that your favorite fighter can have a better chance vs a style that you know he would not do well against which is all you guys are trying to do. Clinching, Tie Ups always been in boxing and will always be. Nothing the fans can do about it but it is something the FIGHTERS can do about it which is learn to FIGHT INSIDE! It is actually kinda disturbing the amount of fighters who can't fight inside in this ERA. All I see is a bunch of HYPE with a ton of Flaws from many of these younger fighters. One of the reason why I am OK with Roman Gonzalez being #1 P4P is because Roman can do it ALL. He can work from Distance with his speed a excellent feet but that little dude is a KILLER on the INSIDE!

i remember how interesting the Wlad-Jennings fight became when the ref took a point away from Wlad for holding There wasn't much holding just a lot of leaning on the back of the neck when Jennings would get underneath. It's part of boxing as a lot of champs have employed it

If the fighter being held has one arm free, he should be permitted to use his elbow to nail the holding bastard in the face with. He will let go pretty damn fast after that. :) I think a fighter who's being excessively clinched has every right to do whatever they want to break the clinch. Rabbit punches, elbows, low blows, throws. In the case of Wlad's fights it's about the only option available to them.

It's kind of funny how people demand that fighters be gladiators, but expect the referee to drop points over clinching. It's also funny that people say MMA is killing boxing, in terms of excitement, but cry about clinching. When the fight becomes a clinchfest, the referee should get involved and deduct points. However, if you have stepped in the ring, you would realise that some clinching is inevitable. More fighters should learn to fight their way out of a clinch. Trouble with Wlad's style of clinching is that it's almost impossible to fight your way out of it without breaking the rules yourself. Especially when he jumps on top of you and tries to force you to the canvas what exactly are you supposed to do? Punch him in the groin? Throw him? There's literally no way to legally fight out of that kind of clinch.

I'd like to see refs be stricter. Too may times a ref will warn and warn but not act on it. Recently, the Postol fight comes to mind. The ref in the end had to make it really clear it had to stop stop or points would be taken. In the end Postol had to change the way he fought. True. Until points are taken away a fighter isn't going to change their tune. Unfortunately the deduction, if it happens, often comes far too late in the day to make a difference to the outcome. A skilled clincher like Ward can often make it seem natural, which can fool refs, but with a blatant and obvious clincher like Wlad points should be taken away straight off the bat.

The point of grabbing is to stop your opponent punching you, often when hurt. If you take a knee then that's a point. Grabbing literally stops losing a point at times. It doesn't add excitement to a match, so refs should be trained to deduct points. Agreed. Clinching while hurt is often a self-preservation move. The opponent rarely takes a fully conscious decision in it. Clinching in order to stifle an opponent's counter attack or ability to fight inside, like Wlad does, should be totally illegal and heavily penalised, especially clinching the way Wlad does it with an aim to wear out his opponent's legs by jumping on top of them. I sued to be a Wlad fan till my eyes were opened by the Povetkin fight. Wlad relies on an illegal move to win him fights. Take that away and he starts to look very ordinary.

Yes, that was my point. You have people crying about clinching, but they will happily cream themselves over a sport where grappling is permitted. Well grappling isnt illegal in MMA. It is in boxing.

then we stop the fight and give refunds I love that idea. Nothing wrong with holding if you're hurt but sometimes the way guys Ward, Wlad, Bhop do it they do it too much and its a gameplan and not because they're hurt. I'm not saying they clinch the living **** out of every opponent ever faced but they do spoil a lot of good fights, Povetkin would likely had a good chance of winning that fight if it wasn't for the rough house tactics just like Froch would have probably had a great chance of beating Ward if it wasn't for all the inside hugging but people call it what you want to. Possibly why Ward never wanted to fight in Britain, he knew the British refs wouldn't let him hold constantly.

You do know that in MMA, grappling/wrestling requires you to grab your opponent right? Yes, that was my point. You have people crying about clinching, but they will happily cream themselves over a sport where grappling is permitted.

It's kind of funny how people demand that fighters be gladiators, but expect the referee to drop points over clinching. It's also funny that people say MMA is killing boxing, in terms of excitement, but cry about clinching. When the fight becomes a clinchfest, the referee should get involved and deduct points. However, if you have stepped in the ring, you would realise that some clinching is inevitable. More fighters should learn to fight their way out of a clinch. You do know that in MMA, grappling/wrestling requires you to grab your opponent right?

It's kind of funny how people demand that fighters be gladiators, but expect the referee to drop points over clinching. It's also funny that people say MMA is killing boxing, in terms of excitement, but cry about clinching. When the fight becomes a clinchfest, the referee should get involved and deduct points. However, if you have stepped in the ring, you would realise that some clinching is inevitable. More fighters should learn to fight their way out of a clinch.

Excessive holding should definitely be penalised but it seems that fighters have adopted it as part of their style/game plan. It's interesting seeing Wlad's fights get tougher for him the odd time (usually when he's fighting in the US) refs don't allow too much holding.

Some boxers use clinching as part of their strategy and that needs to stop. Its illegal and needs to be enforced more. 3 clinches per round gets a warning. 2 more clinches after the warning in the same round gets a point deducted. I'm talking about reaching out to grab your opponent or hugging them when on the inside to prevent them from hitting you type of clinches.

Don't tell that to Andre Ward fans.

I'd like to see refs be stricter. Too may times a ref will warn and warn but not act on it. Recently, the Postol fight comes to mind. The ref in the end had to make it really clear it had to stop stop or points would be taken. In the end Postol had to change the way he fought.

I have not. What does he do? He would slap one of the arms out/down so that who ever was grabbing was in a one-arm clinch.

The Golovkin/Lemieux and Gonzalez/Viloria fights were both entertaining. There was boxing, in-fighting, show of defense without the duck and grab, miss then push, run around with the purpose of just running. Good fights which I hoped were allowed to go on but still good fights.