Slowing Down Your Opponent
We’ve all heard the expression of slowing down your opponent or breaking down your opponent and the big key in doing this is by attacking the body. Some may have heard of the expression of taking away the legs of the opponent and how is this different to a sustained attack to the body to slow down the opposition?
In truth there isn’t much difference but there is a twist – when taking away the legs of your opponent you are not just throwing blows to the mid section but you are going borderline low with your shots. Punches are aimed more at the hips and on the belt line and of course punching the hips is bending the rules so it depends on how the referee reacts to that little trick.
Punching the hips can be debilitating and if they get hit hard enough or long enough it will serve to slow down movement by really effecting the legs. I’ve seen fighters punch the hips from where the referee cannot see, I’ve seen them punch the top of the thigh and if you’ve ever been punched in the thigh you’ll know it can cause a dead leg which means you won’t be moving well for that round at least. There are even techniques to punch a fighter in the private parts which can cause the protective cup to pinch the fighters private parts making it very uncomfortable to move freely and again take away the legs by effecting movement.
In the video below we see Marvin Hagler punching his opponent constantly on the belt line – this was a rematch and Hagler wanted him to fight the same way as the first match, which was more stationary but his opponent was intent on moving around a lot more so to slow him down and get him to trade punches more. Hagler looked to pummel his opponent to the body and belt line. Once Hagler had slowed him down with all those punches to the hips and belt line, which not only slows a fighter down but effects his cardio system meaning his breathing isn’t the same, then Hagler was ripe to finish him off as the fight became more in mid and close range now the opponent was unable to move the same as the body and hip punches added up.
