Henry Armstrong was possibly the greatest pressure fighter of all time. Armstrong was so relentless it earned him a number of apt nicknames such as perpetual motion and Hurricane Henry because he was coming forwards non stop, he wasn’t taking a step back and he would gradually break you down and beat you, like torture he slowly but surely took the fight out of you.

There was a period in the late 1930’s where Armstrong just dominated boxing and one of the tricks he used is covered in the short video below. Armstrong would use his lead forearm on the inside, and being one of the best(it certainly seems a race between Armstrong, Roberto Duran and James Toney as the best inside fighters I have ever seen) at fighting in the pocket, Armstrong put that lead forearm to good use.

The first method we see Homicide Hank use is pinning the opponents arm with his lead forearm. On the inside Armstrong would use the lead forearm to pin the opponents arm and then throw punches off of this, whether it was with the same hand or his ‘free’ hand. Armstrong would keep these punches short and tight making sure he wasn’t winding up or loading up as he was really just trying to take advantage of the gaps he had created.

Secondly Armstrong could use the lead forearm to push off his opponent, creating room and enough space to follow through with more short punches and lastly he could use the lead forearm as defence. Armstrong did this by turning the lead foreman into a kind of high elbow block, he did this both defending the opponents punches  as well as using this high elbow when pressuring his opponent and looking to close the gap. The high elbow from the lead forearm turned into a shield and like a barrier to protect Armstrong as he entered the danger zone within range of his opponent.

Watch the video to see an all time great showing a mastery of his craft.