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

[M Bison]

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.

[Deevel916]

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.

[Fury4daWIN]

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.

[Fury4daWIN]

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.

[Fury4daWIN]

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.

[Fury4daWIN]

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.

[Tony Trick-Pony]

He would slap one of the arms out/down so that who ever was grabbing was in a one-arm clinch.

Oh wow. Haha. Well, that's one way to get it done.

[Tony Trick-Pony]

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.

I've seen many fights that should have been stopped and called a no-contest where the fans get the refund. In the old days, the no-contest thing happened a lot. I could see this being the case in a situation like this. It can be tricky when you have a great fight going along with lots of fouls going as well. In the case last week, Kono vs. Kameda, both guys were fouling a lot but the fight was great. The referee got knocked on here a lot, but I think his early warnings and deductions helped reduce the fouls over the long haul. Should it have been stopped? I don't think so. But having them clean it up made for a better fight down the stretch. When rules aren't enforced however, the fans notice and will respond. Poor refereeing can be a big blight on the sport.

[beez721]

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

[sicko]

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!