Why is Hugging Allowed in Boxing? I believe most viewers think hugging makes the sport a bit boring to watch.
Boxing in real life is not like boxing in movies. No fighter can go 12 rounds just throwing hands all the time. The clinch is used often for strategic purposes, to stop the momentum or interrupt the rhythm of the other fighter. It also is used to get some kind of rest when one is getting pummelled and can’t find a way out.
Sometimes it’s abused of course. But it is very much a part of the sport.
Maybe the fight doesn’t need to be a marathon if it can safely be a sprint.
Watching padded fast guys score points with speed. Less rounds means more speed attacks if it was computer judged instead of the current system.
But then you would have knock outs happen in under a minute. That would provide less value for the people who spent money to either watch the fight or be there in person. I think it’s structured in 12 rounds so that the viewers can betterbbe entertained, even though I feel like that doesn’t really show who’s the better fighter, rather who can hold out the longest.
Why would more protective padding lead to more knockouts?
I’d propose that with better head protection, you could have three, four-round fights in the same time span as a twelve-round fight, with more guaranteed boxing.
Daddy issues
It’s good for them.
It’s wholesome and gives the sport a balance. Only psychopaths would watch people beat each other without occasionally embracing in a warm loving hug.
I’ve been pushing the commissions to allow some quick pecks on the cheek but I’m getting a lot of pushback
I believe most viewers think hugging makes the sport a bit boring to watch.
It’s a sport before entertainment.
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Based on my experiences trying to watch baseball, no.
Sports entertainment isn’t the same as sport. Sport is controlled by a state commission and sports entertainment, notably professional wrestling, is not. It’s what allows wrestlers to use steroids whereas boxers or mma fighters cannot. (Not an expert, just trying to describe the jist of things)
You’re trying to break your opponent’s bones, crush his organs, spray his blood across the front three rows of the audience. Not hurt him emotionally.
Disclaimer: boxing is actually a skilled sport and healthy competition, brain scarring issues aside.
It resets the position. Otherwise one guy would get pummeled and have no way to disengage.
probably lets the fighters regain energy and keep going.
otherwise they’d tire themselves out pretty quickly.
but if they remove it or at least penalize to deter hugging, wouldn’t the athletes just adapt?
It’s so that they can go to fight, then clinch when they can’t do it any longer. By “adapt” they would just not do anything and walk around instead.
It would just be a huge change to the sport in general. You would probably see fighters losing all their power by round 3
Holding. It’s called holding…
Oh yeah? Then why doesn’t the ref award anyone 10 yards on the play? /s
lol
Clinching
Yes, clinching as well. Upvote. I just forever hear Mills Lane in my mind yelling ‘No Holding! No Holding!’. Never heard it refereed to as hugging though.
I call it cuddling
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They are lonely.
In Muay Thai, when your opponent tries to throw a knee, they hold the back of your neck and pull you.
A knee to the stomach or plexus is really powerful, so you have to act fast.
The best defense in those cases is to hold the back of their neck in return, pull them closer so that they cannot strike, and try to throw a knee first.
It ends up with a play of the two opponents holding each other and trying to throw a knee while closing the distance.
And most likely ends up in the dead lock or “hugging” that we see in match.I’m sure there are other techniques that involve this holding in MMA. Forbidding it would remove those techniques from the game.
It’s called the clinch and is a huge part of the sport. There can be a lot happening in the clinch that casual observers won’t necessarily see or appreciate. Some of the all-time greats were masters at working the clinch.
You seem to know your stuff, what are the rules of hugging ? What’s preventing an opponent who knows he is up in points to just do that until the end to not risk any comeback?
What’s preventing an opponent who knows he is up in points to just do that until the end to not risk any comeback?
You just described Floyd Mayweather’s career.
Floyd was one of the first persons I thought of that abuses clinching, I remember watching his fight with Pacquiao and it was boring as hell. 12 rounds of nothing.
That fight was such a huge disappointment and was the event that brought my attention to his fighting style.
Yes, I know he’s technically within his rights to fight like that. But I am well within my rights to lose respect for a guy who won’t face an equal opponent head on and resorts to playing “the game” like a coward.
He’s why I thought of this post. Such a boring fighter.
If you are talking about western boxing which I assume you are (No kicks or anything but punches). The human body simply can not go at full pace for 12 rounds like that. If you want to watch some entertainment, fast pace, less hugging check out boxing in the Olympics. They are some mad lads
Hugging in boxing is why MMA/UFC took off.
which is hugging on the floor. in speedos.
MMA should really just update the rules to allow kissing at this point. Uh, I mean they should allow mouth grapples.
Don’t forget the occasional nibbles.
In fact, forget the speedos!
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I know the referees pull them out of the hug but it’s just not good when the fighters finally got close enough to go blow for blow then they hug and all the action dies down.
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