In boxing height is not an advantage. Rather, the attributes that attend height: reach, hand-size, shoulder-width and body mass are the advantages a boxer enjoys. The height itself is a disadvantage as taller fighters are easier to hit in the chin and jaw, and tend to strike the top of the opponent’s skull more often and injure their hand.
It is not so in all combat arts. In knife fighting the tall man has the advantage of being able to access the throat from above without passing the enemy hands. In stick fighting the tall man has access to the side of the head and facility with the back hand that shorter fighters lack, having to loop over an opposing shoulder.
But even in stick-fighting, the very best tall men, Top Dog of the Dog Brothers and, on the east coast, Aaron Seligson, have gotten “low and long” using their reach and coiling their limbs, and that in a weapon art that favors height. They did so with success because they could always emerge from the crouch and “get tall” when targets presented themselves, while contracting their target area behind their long limbs.
For the boxer with height advantage a hand or more above his opponent:
1. Take your feet out to their maximum balanced width, standing under your shoulders rather than your hips.
2. Raise your rear hand to cover your jaw.
3. Extend your lead hand to menace the opponent.
4. Look through the hands, not over that lead hand, which should be positioned so that the thumb, if the hand is opened, and brought back until it touched your face, would touch your jaw halfway between your chin and your ear.
5. Defend with the rear hand.
6. Menace, probe, stiff arm, measure, and spear with the lead hand.
7. Put your hand in his eyes, on his shoulder, on the top of his munchkin head!
8. Do not plunge with the jab. Plunging is punching down, which is fine if you are fighting on the floor and you have the mount or are looming over a downed opponent. A plunging jab brings the hand downward, making it tend to drop after the punch and not return to guard. Also, the angle pulls the head and shoulders forward, taking away your rear hand power and putting your chin in hooking range. It is easy to clinch a tall fighter who looms and plunges with the jab. Plunging is the natural tendency of the tall man and is a habit tall boxers must condition themselves to eradicate.
9. Fence with the jab. Fencing is indeed the source of the jab in the British bare-knuckle tradition. Keep you lead elbow against your ribs. Extend your lead hand to point at his eyes in front of your jaw as you crouch down to his height. You are now effectively the long-armed ape of the boxing world. Jab with all of your body weight pushing forward at the hips, driven by your coiled rear leg, braced by the elbow against your ribs. Spear him! Imagine you have a punch dagger in your lead hand and stab him.
10. To protect against counter attacks sink your ass down while keeping your hands and shoulders where they are, essentially shrugging your shoulders and detaching your power by sinking your torso, not lifting the shoulders. Weather the storm, taking the energy in your thighs, then pop up to counter, dropping your shoulders and spearing him.
11. A good jab rhythm to try is blind jab at the eyes but falling short, feint at the nose, then spear the chin or chest. If you hit the chest, come back upstairs to a shoulder check or eye-raking jab as you pivot out off the lead foot.
Dominate the combat space with your reach—which is your compressed combat potential, rather than with your height, which is your expanded target zone.
How goes this advice change if at all for a kick boxer? It would seem harder to position a solid kick crouched like you described.
You are already crouching like this sparring Craig—you are there. You are not driving downward with your jab from a heavy shoulder. I like you jabs for setting up kicks and following up lead leg kicks. For a real tall kicker, though, this crouch problems at a certain level. However, John Jones does it and makes it work.
I've really enjoyed reading your stuff, sir. I am a kindred spirit in the 'No BS Boxing' philosophy and practice.
As a guy who is a tad taller than many of the guys my weight, as well as being a bit on the leaner side, I have a vast appreciation for the true masters of jab and distance.
Two guys that SHOULD have dominated their respective divisions with 'No BS Boxing' approaches didn't pan out....Mark Breland and Ernie Terrell. These guys were blessed with all the physical attributes to be the worst level of hell for their opponents, yet they failed to deliver in the big ones...and I think that the tendency to engage in the 'plunging' you mention here and a tendency to stand still and engage with both hands flying was a major contributor in both cases.
Just wondering about your thoughts on Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara. Many "fans" of the sport are deserting them as boring runners...I think they are purist's purists.
Thanks for the input, Jess.
I think that what goes on in the mind and body of a fighter like Breland is that their jab is so good that they get seduced by the fact that they are on target to score with the power hand, and end up trading with tougher customers.
I am not familiar with Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara and will look them up and post an article.