changing positioning in fight

[shs101]

For boxing purposes but can relate to mma or kickboxing. I notice not all but some of the "slicker" fighters such as mayweather changes his stance/hand position thru out the fight to do certain things.
If anyone is a fan they can easily tell when he fights he goes from shoulder roll position and then hands up real high sort of a peeka boo guard. Also he'll switch to a more open guard position. More fighters do this but he's a good example off the top of my head while you see tons of other high level fighters stay in one position the entire fight.

What are the pros/cons to fighting like this?

 

[a guy]

Different stances and hand positions create different opportunities while leaving different openings. Or more importantly, appearing to leave different openings. For example, a fighter might lower his lead hand to give the illusion that his jaw is unprotected. In reality, his jaw will be protected by maintaining distance and keeping the head off center. This makes the opponent believe that he can easily hit the jaw when it will still be very difficult. At the same time, lowering the lead hand takes it out of the opponents vision and causes strikes to come from below, making them harder to defend and more intimidating.

Another example would be a guy shifting his weight forward with a high guard. This puts the head close to the opponent and makes it more likely that the opponent will attack your head because it will be easier to reach. Anticipating this, you can trick the guy into swinging at your head (which will have plenty of room to move back by shifting the weight to the rear foot) then pull back and counter. The cons of this are that obviously, your head is closer to the other guy's fists at first, but a lot of people like to do this.

Those are just two examples and there are many more. The pros are that you can change your stance to leave openings that the opponent is most likely going to attempt to exploit. This makes their offense more predictable and allows you to counter with greater ease. Also, it can make your strikes come from places the opponent isn't used to or expecting. As far as cons, you will be leaving different openings that you have to be ready to defend. And you have to understand that the guy might not fall for the trap, so you can't just sit there waiting for him to do what you want. It takes more awareness and understanding to use tactics like this, so it generally takes more calm and intelligent fighters to master them.

 

[PeterPain]

Yup, I jump on my teep, go up and low on knee to catch people offguard.
The most fun I had were doing Floyd'esque shoulder rolls or Genki Sudo locking. It was fun but my parner was pissed off.

The ONE AND MAJOR DANGER here is to actualy become predictable trying not to be predictable:

-Use certain move in specific from, (Matt Huges, going orthodoxe boxing/southpaw grappling)
People know what you will go for and that's not a good thing.

-Move around alot and than stop just before striking, (I'm thinking David Loiseau)
This RED FLAG your attacks alot.

-Running into a punch, (Do I need to copy/paste Rashad Face again?)

 

[panamaican]

Different stances and hand positions create different opportunities while leaving different openings. Or more importantly, appearing to leave different openings. For example, a fighter might lower his lead hand to give the illusion that his jaw is unprotected. In reality, his jaw will be protected by maintaining distance and keeping the head off center. This makes the opponent believe that he can easily hit the jaw when it will still be very difficult. At the same time, lowering the lead hand takes it out of the opponents vision and causes strikes to come from below, making them harder to defend and more intimidating.

Another example would be a guy shifting his weight forward with a high guard. This puts the head close to the opponent and makes it more likely that the opponent will attack your head because it will be easier to reach. Anticipating this, you can trick the guy into swinging at your head (which will have plenty of room to move back by shifting the weight to the rear foot) then pull back and counter. The cons of this are that obviously, your head is closer to the other guy's fists at first, but a lot of people like to do this.

Those are just two examples and there are many more. The pros are that you can change your stance to leave openings that the opponent is most likely going to attempt to exploit. This makes their offense more predictable and allows you to counter with greater ease. Also, it can make your strikes come from places the opponent isn't used to or expecting. As far as cons, you will be leaving different openings that you have to be ready to defend. And you have to understand that the guy might not fall for the trap, so you can't just sit there waiting for him to do what you want. It takes more awareness and understanding to use tactics like this, so it generally takes more calm and intelligent fighters to master them.

This is a pretty solid summary.