Crouch/Stand-up style

JC · Post by JC » 23 Jul 2004, 17:14

I was reading about Jim Jefferies and it mentioned the fact that he developed his crouching style of fighting for his match with Fitzsimmons. I was wondering is this the root of why some American fighters started fighting out of a 'crouch' as a opposed to the traditional British/European 'stand up' style? Or is there some other reason?

dempseyfire · Post by **dempseyfire** » 23 Jul 2004, 18:03

He certainly was one of the 1st leading gloved fighters to fight in a crouch. If you think since bareknuckling had been the practice only a few years before- I'm sure some bareknuckle guys with real hard heads used a crouch somewhat, as their opponent could likely hurt their hands on the opponents skull. But also since they didn't wear gloves, you couldn't really use your hands to block off punches as you were down in the crouch . . .
Interesting question. I don't really know the answer.

The Scranton Assassin · Post by **The Scranton Assassin** » 28 Jul 2004, 15:42

Tom Sharkey was also one of the fathers of the Squat-Brawling style. I've read alot about the old time bare knuckle guys but I'm pretty sure these two gloved-up boys were the first ever to use such a style. I read that John L sullivan would sometimes resort to crouching and swarming in with punches but for the most part he was more of a stand up strait toe to toe kind of fighter.

Jaclem · Post by **Jaclem** » 29 Jul 2004, 01:41

Nat Fleischer and other old time writers who covered boxing from those early days always made mention of Jeffries and his crouch when they wrote about him, so he probably wasn't the first, but seems to have been the most effective at that style at the time.... and may have been the most influential on other fighters. Jack Dempsey rated Jeffries as the best heavyweight champion when he himself was champion and he fought from a crouch, though he was mnuch more mobile.....but i think it's safe to say he was emulating Jeffries to some degree.