James for some lighthearted fun I've been talking strategy for these odd match ups what would you tell thsee fighters if you were cornering them.

Take care.

Big Ron

For the reader, the images that Ron sent me were samples of old carnival boxing matchups between fat men and tall men, where you have two examples of extremely rotund five footers against elongated seven footers.

To answer the question, Ron, there is an old boxing axiom that short men should fight short and tall men should fight tall, taking advantage of your natural gift.

In the ring the tall man is disadvantaged, in that he may not poke or gouge the eyes of the short man and he is outweighed. He is further at risk for more injury as his hands will strike the top of the thick skull, his jaw is exposed and his ribs are right in line with the short man's power line.

This translates into three tactics for the short man:

break his hands with your head,

break his ribs

and look for that chin when the elbows come down to protect the ribs.

Peek-a-boo style boxing is in order for the short and rotund.

As far as clinching goes, the short heavy man wants an under-hook and the tall man wants the over-hook.

What can the elongated one do?

From on high, boxing tall according to conventional wisdom, he should do as Ali did and keep his lead low, protect his ribs with his rear hand like bare knuckle men did and tuck his chin behind the shoulder and move the shoulder and head away to avoid sweeping blows from below. The low jab is to lift up the stout chin so it can be clipped by the straight right. Do not hook—look what happened to Hearns when he hooked with Haggler and look at the success he had with straight punches against Duran, who hung right in there with Haggler.

There is also another way for the tall man to go, and he needs it, because the short man has fewer liabilities in this match up and the tall-man's reach is compromised by his exposed ribs and jaw.

When sparring and competing against the best stick-fighter in the U.S., I always knew I was done for when he "got low" and did a long crouch, keeping his reach and power and preventing me from getting under him. This takes specific thigh conditioning. You have to practice it and it is tiring for a narrow-assed tall man, but if you can do it in spots as a broken rhythm trap, you will have an easy time taking apart the shorter man, especially when he starts to fag out. Just as the short man ahs fallen into the habit of lunging and reaching as you jab and move away, get low, hands up and out, and make a brief stand. As soon as he begins to adapt, move off into your tall guard. When he gets really tired and it comes time for you to hunt hi down, you should do so in this crouch.

Develop a power jab from the crouch, such as that owned by Krusher Kovalev, for harpooning the whale before you.

For the short man when tasked with such a tall-man's crouched response, you must work side-to-side, laterally, which will be tiring for your fat ass just as the crouch is tiring for his narrow ass.

I am suggesting the tall man is most dangerous when he switches from the Cassius Clay method to the Kovalev method. Kovalev was derailed by Ward in their second fight because of the inability to change style in this fashion and fight defensively. Though way over the hill, Archie Moore was the best peek-a-boo fighter of all time and Ali the best user of the low guard when they met. Note that Ali's wide shoulders helped facilitate his head fade defense. A narrow-shouldered man will have more trouble pulling this off. The picture in the still below, or Moore and Ali, has Ali using a modified bare knuckle guard.