Discipulus
Black Belt
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Recently I started watching videos of fighters who employ the cross-armed guard, a defense that has always intrigued me, but one which I can admit to not understanding all that well.
It looks something like this:
I haven't read the source, but I know from Sinister that the originator of this style was a bareknuckle boxer called Hiawatha Grey. It's difficult to find much about Grey, but if anything the fact that he fought in the days before gloves leads me to believe that this guard was originated as a means of not only defending the opponent's strikes, but actually punishing him for attacking you at all--the raised elbows and outward-turned forearms would do some real damage to incoming bare-fisted blows.
The next notable stop in the lineage is the man featured in the image above, the great Archie Moore, one of boxing's true legends. Archie had great success with the cross-armed guard, which he called "the Lock," as an aggressive counter fighter.
In his boxing comeback, George Foreman made up for his advanced age by adopting the Lock, as taught by Moore himself, and utilized it very well. One of the more interesting of his many dominant performances in that run is this, a fight with Bert Cooper, another (much smaller) heavyweight known for his use of the same guard. We can watch it to get a feeling for its application by two very different fighters.
Here we have Foreman, the pressure fighter, and Cooper, the counter fighter. Two very different approaches; one style of defense.
One of the criticisms of the cross-armed guard is that it leaves the hands in poor positions to counter. Looking only at the arms, this seems to make sense, but given that Archie Moore was an excellent counter fighter, it doesn't add up. There seem to be ways to make the guard work as a means of creating opportunities.
In the above fight, Cooper serves as a convenient example of both how to and how not to use the cross-armed guard as a counter fighter. Bert's early approach seems to be very practical against such a large opponent as Foreman. He doesn't only block punches, but moves his head and his feet to stay out of the semi-circle of destruction that exists in whatever direction Foreman is facing. The cross-armed guard seems to be ideal for guys with good hooks, and that's exactly the counter that Cooper was known for. Like Archie, he would adopt the guard and lean slightly forward at the waist, loading his left hip for a hook. From this squared upper body position, he could wait to defend the right hand of the opponent and then fire back with an immediate left hook.
Try it out: though it's hard to believe just looking at the guard, the position actually feels pretty natural for the start of a nice left hook, but only when the upper body is squared with the head over the lead hip. With the head pulled back over the right hip, the cross-armed guard starts to look a lot more like the "crab" defense of Floyd Mayweather, and just as the left hook was loaded by the head-forward position, this body position lends itself well to an overhand right.
What I'm getting at is that the cross-armed guard, like any kind of blocking-centric defense, is only effective for countering when it's very active.
Which brings us to Bert's downfall in the second round. Once Foreman crushes him with a few bodyshots, Cooper's activity level drops off dramatically. Suddenly he finds himself standing in front of Foreman, trying to catch punches on his forearms, but not adjusting his position to meet each new threat. Foreman was never a dumb fighter, and despite his seemingly sluggish movements he picked his shots very carefully and intelligently. Impassive and waiting too long between counters, Bert became a sitting duck, despite his continued use of the cross-armed guard. This happened to him in several of his fights, like against Evander Holyfield.
Without making adjustments the cross-armed guard becomes a simple obstacle for a combination puncher to overcome, and the bent forward posture that helps make it such a viable defense to body shots also make it a treat for fighters with good uppercuts, as you can well see.
More from me later. For now, please post any links or videos you have of the cross-armed guard's history, or its use by other notable fighters. Thanks, and I look forward to the discussion.
It looks something like this:
I haven't read the source, but I know from Sinister that the originator of this style was a bareknuckle boxer called Hiawatha Grey. It's difficult to find much about Grey, but if anything the fact that he fought in the days before gloves leads me to believe that this guard was originated as a means of not only defending the opponent's strikes, but actually punishing him for attacking you at all--the raised elbows and outward-turned forearms would do some real damage to incoming bare-fisted blows.
The next notable stop in the lineage is the man featured in the image above, the great Archie Moore, one of boxing's true legends. Archie had great success with the cross-armed guard, which he called "the Lock," as an aggressive counter fighter.
In his boxing comeback, George Foreman made up for his advanced age by adopting the Lock, as taught by Moore himself, and utilized it very well. One of the more interesting of his many dominant performances in that run is this, a fight with Bert Cooper, another (much smaller) heavyweight known for his use of the same guard. We can watch it to get a feeling for its application by two very different fighters.
Here we have Foreman, the pressure fighter, and Cooper, the counter fighter. Two very different approaches; one style of defense.
One of the criticisms of the cross-armed guard is that it leaves the hands in poor positions to counter. Looking only at the arms, this seems to make sense, but given that Archie Moore was an excellent counter fighter, it doesn't add up. There seem to be ways to make the guard work as a means of creating opportunities.
In the above fight, Cooper serves as a convenient example of both how to and how not to use the cross-armed guard as a counter fighter. Bert's early approach seems to be very practical against such a large opponent as Foreman. He doesn't only block punches, but moves his head and his feet to stay out of the semi-circle of destruction that exists in whatever direction Foreman is facing. The cross-armed guard seems to be ideal for guys with good hooks, and that's exactly the counter that Cooper was known for. Like Archie, he would adopt the guard and lean slightly forward at the waist, loading his left hip for a hook. From this squared upper body position, he could wait to defend the right hand of the opponent and then fire back with an immediate left hook.
Try it out: though it's hard to believe just looking at the guard, the position actually feels pretty natural for the start of a nice left hook, but only when the upper body is squared with the head over the lead hip. With the head pulled back over the right hip, the cross-armed guard starts to look a lot more like the "crab" defense of Floyd Mayweather, and just as the left hook was loaded by the head-forward position, this body position lends itself well to an overhand right.
What I'm getting at is that the cross-armed guard, like any kind of blocking-centric defense, is only effective for countering when it's very active.
Which brings us to Bert's downfall in the second round. Once Foreman crushes him with a few bodyshots, Cooper's activity level drops off dramatically. Suddenly he finds himself standing in front of Foreman, trying to catch punches on his forearms, but not adjusting his position to meet each new threat. Foreman was never a dumb fighter, and despite his seemingly sluggish movements he picked his shots very carefully and intelligently. Impassive and waiting too long between counters, Bert became a sitting duck, despite his continued use of the cross-armed guard. This happened to him in several of his fights, like against Evander Holyfield.
Without making adjustments the cross-armed guard becomes a simple obstacle for a combination puncher to overcome, and the bent forward posture that helps make it such a viable defense to body shots also make it a treat for fighters with good uppercuts, as you can well see.
More from me later. For now, please post any links or videos you have of the cross-armed guard's history, or its use by other notable fighters. Thanks, and I look forward to the discussion.
