When Did Holding Become Big and Turn Into A Strategy?

[Fix]

When did holding become big? i think in recent times the blame has to lie on the Ricky Hatton v Kostya Tszyu fight.. Hatton held so much in the fight, without ref warnings, it was nearly a wrestling match not a boxing match.. and because that fight had such a intense crazy crowd atmosphere (and of course because of Tszyu and at the time the lesser-known Hatton) it was watched by a lot of people worldwide..

That was the fight which really set the recent precedent on holding in boxing, ever since then we've seen it displayed much more frequently..

I think that fight pretty much showed that if he's allowed to hold excessively a limited skill guy like Hatton can hang in there with someone as skilled as Tszyu.. it demonstrated the 'power' of holding..

[hectari]

The reason holding and clinching is big is because the referee or the commission lets it go and they do not enforce the rules. Holding is illegal in boxing, yet only a tiny percentage of refs actually warn or deduct points.

Ricky Hatton was praised for it when he was basically grappling Kostya Tsyzu and won the fight. Hatton should have been deducted or DQ'd for so much holding. Holding is against the rules of boxing.

Bernard Hopkins holds a lot, what they do is be slick about it. Richard Abril would hold Rios where the ref couldn't see it, its called a one hand under hold, he would grab rios with one arm and hit with his other, his holding arm would be away from the ref so the ref couldn't see it.

Hopkins does this a lot.

If boxing wants to be saved they need to enforce penalties for excessive holding and deducting points for it. Holding is killing the sport, the last great In fighting phone booth warfare fights I remember in recent years were the first Castillo-Corrales fight and the Izzy Vazquez vs. Rafa Marquez trilogy.

Those guys fought inside without holding.

[Steven Adams]

^^^sorted... like sicko was sayin, theres ways around it.

[STREET CLEANER]

Holding/clinching has always been part of the game. It is up to the ref to enforce it.

They were some ppl criticizing the ref in Floyd/Hatton fight cause they said that they broke them apart to quickly and Ricky couldn't do his fight.

It has got down to the point that some fighters is a huge part of their game plan

[Paclan]

um since the beginning of time?

[Paclan]

^^^sorted... like sicko was sayin, theres ways around it.

shane loves to hug

[FeFist]

you guys never watch old footage of boxing? hell, jack Johnson used to clinch all the time and obviously it was an effective strategy. clinching has always been apart of the game.

instead of whining about clinching you should focus on the guys who have NO IDEA how to deal with a clincher. you bring up margarito, rios and kirkland. its their own damn fault that they don't know how to deal with it. throw an uppercut against Molina when he's lunging in to clinch, step to the fuching side, push them off, etc. rios and margarito are one dimensional they have no other game plan. blame them for being so limited.

[Mr. Philadel]

"I say whats in my heart and yall call it a style" -DMX

[jisi]

Ali did he, all great boxers uses holding. Holding is a part of professional boxing.

[chav]

Wladimir Klitschko says hello to everyone in this thread.

If the guy who is pretty much the unified & undisputed champ can make a career out of it in heavyweight boxing, i guess others will probably think it's ok too.