Boxing

Boxing

Boxing originated in England, a sport in which two opponents of similar weight fight each other with their fists. There are three rounds, or one to three minute intervals of combat. Victory is rewarded if one opponent is knocked down and can’t get up before the referee counts to ten. This is called a knockout or K.O. It is also considered a K.O. if one opponent is too injured to continue fighting. If there is no fight stoppage before the rounds are done, then the victor is decided by the referee of judges’ scorecards.

Boxing Techniques

Stance is one of the most important boxing techniques. The boxing stance has changed since the early stances of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The modern stance consists more of an upright guarding position, as opposed to the more horizontally held stance of early boxing, in which the knuckles faced the ground.

There are four basic punches in boxing. They are the jab, the cross, the hook, and the uppercut. If the boxer is right handed, his left hand is the lead hand, and his right, the rear, and vice versa for the left-handed boxer. The jab is a quick, straight punch thrown with the leading hand from the original guarding position. The cross is a powerful straight punch thrown with the rear hand. The hook is a semi-circular punch delivered with the rear hand to the side of the opponent’s head. The uppercut is a vertical punch carried out with the rear hand.

There are many different defenses, such as the slip, the sway or fade, the duck or break, the bob and weave, the clinch, and the Parry/Block. Slipping rotates the body so the punch is a miss. The sway is an anticipation of the punch, so that movement of the head avoids the opponent’s punch, or at least lessens the blow. The duck or break is to crouch down so that the punch misses entirely. The clinch is somewhat more complicated. This move encloses the space between the boxers so that jabs cannot be delivered. The block obviously blocks the punches.

Boxing Results

Here are some recent World Championship boxing results. August 11: Daniel Ponce de Leon TKO 1 Rey Bautista, Gerry Penalosa KO 7 Jhonny Gonzalez, Z Gorres TKO 8 Eric Oritz. August 12: Rolly Matsushita TKO 12 Masayuki Mitani, Thomas Aryeetey W 12 Odalai Lamptey. August 13: Omar Salado KO 3 Branni Sandoval.