high guard = boring fight

[madskills]

If your a boxer you know it takes a lot of arm strength to actually keep those arms up like Winky does, or sometimes Roy, but I am not saying any other boxer cant do it.

[T-97]

My trainer gets us all to fight like that as it makes it harder to hit you. However in sparring i lower my left hand a bit so i can get more snap in my jab but keep my right hand ****ed for a straight. As far as not getting hit.....i manage to counter punch a few of the guys easy cause when they try to throw body shots its easy to get a right to the head and punches to my head i block and throw back a jab straight away and it gets through. The style is not unbeatable, its verybeatable...but its safer than tryin to keep yo hands down all the time lol

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

yes, but -again- it is NEVER "JUST keeping your hands up." It may appear to be that easy...but it is not

[Guest]

Nah, nobody could ever punch through that high guard. That only happens in about 9 of every 10 fights I see which kind of makes what Winky does all the more special.

[mr. bojangles]

Juan Diaz actually keeps a tight high guard D, then throws volumes of punches in the return fire...and he's very entertaining to watch, yea?

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

People really need to understand that this style we are talking about is a style, a technique. It is not just putting your hands up to block your face. You have to know how to cover up, how to cover the head and body at the same time. How and when to turn and rotate your waist and shoulders as yuou black and deflect punches. You need to know how to hold your hands when you want to block certain punches in a certain manner, etc etc. A lot of guys try to do it and cannot figure out how come they keep getting beaten worse than before they tried it. The most important thing is to know how and when to punch off the blocks. Marlon was great at it and Winky is very good at it, too

[Floyd R]

The high guard makes you vulnerable to body punches. If you get hit in the body continuously with powerful shots, the arms will drop.

[Mr. Ryan]

The high guard makes you vulnerable to body punches. If you get hit in the body continuously with powerful shots, the arms will drop.

That's why you're supposed to keep your elbows in, so you can bend to one side and drop your elbow to block a body shot while still maintaining your guard high.

I'm not nearly as experienced as Scully on this topic, but maintaining a cross body guard inside almost always takes away a guy's body options in close, atleast in my case. The most important thing of course is keeping your eyes open and reacting your man's movements.

[javelin_fangs]

I think judges need to start hammering those that use this style, to prevent this from getting too out of hand.

Maybe I am missing something here. Could you please explain why a fighter wouldn't want to use this style, or if there is a surefire strategy to beat it. I hope so, because I am awfully tired of these boring twelve round decisions, and want to see some real fighting.

Wait...judges should penalize guys for not getting hit?

There's a way to beat it. You rip the body and stick a jab between the guard. When they lean in you can throw just about any punch you want you just have to place it right.

I think the real problem is that is takes skill, intelligence in the ring and good endurance. Unfortunately, most fighters these days leave a lot to be desired on all three of those fronts.

[Feint]

Unless you have 9 foot arms like winky, it leaves you open for body shots. Also, it's slower punching from your arms starting in that position, so if you aren't too quick, you won't land too many punches.

Very good style to use if you are ahead on points and you are coasting a bit, or if you've won the first 2 mins of the round and sort of want to ride it out.

Good points.

You need to be a very good counter puncher to use this technique. Otherwise it won't help you very much on offense. As well, if you don't have good head movement it won't be long before your opponent starts slipping in punches.