Boxing in the inside against a taller boxer

Noodles03

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Hi, I spend most of my time training at close range due to my reach disadvantage. However, I recently came across expert-boxing.com and the coach there mentioned that a taller boxer will always have the advantage on the inside. I'm curious to know from your guys experience if this happens to be the case and should I focus more on boxing on the outside even though I have arms like T-Rex?
 
1. Don't believe everything expertboxing says
2. If you enjoy fighting on the inside, fight on the inside. There are many techniques and strategies for short fighters on the inside.
3. Watch Mike Tyson film studies, they have great techniques for short fighters, and they are very inspirational for short fighters.

Don't worry, you can kick tall guy ass.
 
Does expertboxing give reasons for taller fighters having advantage on inside? What about tall fighter with short arms?
 
Does expertboxing give reasons for taller fighters having advantage on inside? What about tall fighter with short arms?

His reasoning is that a taller fighter can clinch and lean, and can attack from more angles at their opponent (downwards with straights, sideways with hooks, upwards with uppercuts), whereas a shorter fighter can only attack with straight or hooking shots. A great advantage is that in close, the tall fighter’s head is more out of harm’s way than the short fighter’s head.

I'm not sure about his logic on taller fighter with short arms.
 
His reasoning is that a taller fighter can clinch and lean, and can attack from more angles at their opponent (downwards with straights, sideways with hooks, upwards with uppercuts), whereas a shorter fighter can only attack with straight or hooking shots. A great advantage is that in close, the tall fighter’s head is more out of harm’s way than the short fighter’s head.

I'm not sure about his logic on taller fighter with short arms.

Hmmm that is food for thought. I have short arms, but always had problems with kids who were shorter.
 
I'm freakishly tall, and short aggressive fighters are my nightmare. MT rules, ya, stay away from me...

Someone short of equal weight can often easily move me around because my center of gravity is so much higher. And being shorter and of equal weight means you are probably more dense and can out muscle me.

Short people usually have fast reflexes; I've been told by medical professional it's do to the milliseconds it takes for an electric nerve impulse to move shorter or longer distances, and that sounds believable to me. That's one of the reasons mongooses (or mice, as an example for us westerners) are so fast. Closer you are to me, the more your faster reaction times benefit you and my slower reactions harm me.

Also, and most importantly, what else are you going to do? Try to box me at long range? That's where I want you. Get me out of comfort zone and rattle me.
 
Tall guys can crack you pretty good up close believe it or not and yes they can wear you down with the clinch. Although not all of them know that, so keep at it. Learn to fight em at all ranges but I think mid range is the best range to fight the most at.
 
His reasoning is that a taller fighter can clinch and lean, and can attack from more angles at their opponent (downwards with straights, sideways with hooks, upwards with uppercuts), whereas a shorter fighter can only attack with straight or hooking shots. A great advantage is that in close, the tall fighter’s head is more out of harm’s way than the short fighter’s head.

I'm not sure about his logic on taller fighter with short arms.

In boxing the most a fighter can do with clinchign is to rough the other guy upa nd tire him out but only if the ref is very laid back sicne it's illegal. Punching downward is not an advantage it's usually (in 99% of all cases) a bad thing.

How is the tall fighters head more away? One guy has the head near the other guy's chest and much too close for the taller guy to generate full power with his usually longer arms and the other guy's head is up in the air like a pinata ready to be hit.

Also the shorter guy everywhere but at HW is usually stronegr and stockier so the taller guy might even be the one to get thrown around when they wrestle. Even in wrestling and MMA there are some great short clinch fighters (wrestling wise)

Let alone the body which is horrible to protect against a shorter fighter up close while the taller guy has a much harder time connecting body shots if even even considers throwing them.

Obviously there are advantages for everyone everywhere even the taller fighter on the inside but it's certainly not what most consider to be an advantage.
 
Does expertboxing give reasons for taller fighters having advantage on inside? What about tall fighter with short arms?
The should probably find a new sport
His reasoning is that a taller fighter can clinch and lean, and can attack from more angles at their opponent (downwards with straights, sideways with hooks, upwards with uppercuts), whereas a shorter fighter can only attack with straight or hooking shots. A great advantage is that in close, the tall fighter’s head is more out of harm’s way than the short fighter’s head.

I'm not sure about his logic on taller fighter with short arms.
this makes sense. It's also worth noting that taller fighters get a lot of practice fighting inside because everyone has the same generic plan against them- get inside and work the body then finish upstairs. The 6"9" SHWT I used to train with tore me up when I'm got on the inside, but if I stayed at the end of my punches it gave me more time to see his coming.
 
In boxing the most a fighter can do with clinchign is to rough the other guy upa nd tire him out but only if the ref is very laid back sicne it's illegal. Punching downward is not an advantage it's usually (in 99% of all cases) a bad thing.

How is the tall fighters head more away? One guy has the head near the other guy's chest and much too close for the taller guy to generate full power with his usually longer arms and the other guy's head is up in the air like a pinata ready to be hit.

Also the shorter guy everywhere but at HW is usually stronegr and stockier so the taller guy might even be the one to get thrown around when they wrestle. Even in wrestling and MMA there are some great short clinch fighters (wrestling wise)

Let alone the body which is horrible to protect against a shorter fighter up close while the taller guy has a much harder time connecting body shots if even even considers throwing them.

Obviously there are advantages for everyone everywhere even the taller fighter on the inside but it's certainly not what most consider to be an advantage.
there are a lot of examples of fighters who use the clinch to protect themselves from wild punchers or to set up some powerful shots by pushing/jockeying for position. The shorter guys head is closer to the gloves of the taller fighter and the taller fighter can ride much further back and away to avoid shots.
 
there are a lot of examples of fighters who use the clinch to protect themselves from wild punchers or to set up some powerful shots by pushing/jockeying for position. The shorter guys head is closer to the gloves of the taller fighter and the taller fighter can ride much further back and away to avoid shots.

Tons of fighters set up shots by stiff arming their opponent butat close range that's hard to near impossible if your arms are longer and if you are taller.Clinching to avoid a fight a la Wlad is obviously a good defensive strategy but not an offensive one and the ability to survive is hardly something that gives you a bigger advantage than the ability to do damage.

The glove positioning is a very arguable advantage at the same time you could say that the taller fighter's gloves are further away from his own head. And even if they are closer to the pponent's head it severely impacts the power you can create.
Yeah riding back to avoid shots is an option but it doesn't negate the other overwhelming defensive liabilties that come from being the bigger inside fighter.

You named a few possible advantages but most of them have a flipside and the shorter fighter has a longer or at leats more meaningful list of advantages. So basically like I said there are advantages but the advantages don't outweigh the disadvantages and the advantages the other guy has.

There is a reason more inside fighter than not are either shorter than their opponents or have shorter reach and while there have been good taller inside fighters throughout the history of boxing they are the exception not the norm. And out of the taller inside fighters there have been a few who still showed these defensive liabilities I spoke of Riddick Bowe is the first one I can think of
 
Generally taller fighters can lean on their shorter opponents in the clinch, think Klitschko. But shorter opponents/shorter armed opponents can get more work done in the clinch, think Andre Ward, Hatton and Duran.
 
Worth nothing is that just because you're shorter doesn't mean you have to be an inside fighter to be successful. Some actually prefer to not infight against taller opponents, for some of the reasons stated in this thread.
 
Short guys have their own advantages on the inside. If they're being leaned on their lower centre of gravity means that they can create angles quickly and move away from their opponents weight distribution.
 
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