How to Fight Someone Taller Than You

A question we have all asked ourselves is how do you fight someone taller than you? Emile Griffith was a terrific world champion who stood just under 5’7 tall. When Griffith was fighting as a Light Middleweight and Middleweight he was often going up against taller opponents so figuring out a way to counter the jab of an opponent with a longer reach was imperative – Emile Griffith would end his career as a three weight world champion at Welterweight, Light Middleweight and Middleweight, amassing a very impressive 85 career wins.

In this video I have a look at one of the tactics he used which I call the slip and step. Griffith would slip inside the opponents jab and then step in as he threw the jab which served the purpose of closing the gap with his taller opponent. Other times Griffith would step in with the slip so he didn’t need to step in again with the jab as he had already accomplished closing the gap with the step whilst slipping.

You don’t always want to be using the same move when closing the gap so Griffith would also mix things up, he would add a slip to the outside and then step in with the counter or he would double slip to avoid the opponents jab and then counter with his own jab. Another trick briefly displayed in the video is sliding in behind the opponents punch. Typically a taller opponent will have longer arms which allows an opponent to come in behind the punch as the longer armed opponent is retracting their punch and close the distance. Griffith does this by dipping in as the punch is coming back and that results in him quickly closing the gap.

Watch the video below to see how Emile Griffith would use the slip and step against a taller opponent.