Why is the Backhand illegal in Boxing?

[Brian Seneca]

Funny as soon as I read the title I immediately thought of Max Baer.

Baer is always the first name that pops into my mind when I think of backhand blows. Watching old footage of him will easily show why

It’s actually comical. Although crude fundamentals boy could he hit. Did you ever see the Schmelling fight wow!

[gilgamesh]

Yep. He beat the ever loving sh*t out of Schmeling.

[pound per pound]

First thought is that it probably goes back to bare knuckle days.

Apparently it does go back to bareknuckle days. It was banned in order to reduce cuts/bleeding which a backhand (without gloves) was likely to do.

Yep, and Lennox Lewis used the backhand right over the region that cut Vitali's eye just before we saw the blood. I didn't believe it until I saw it.

[oogiebe]

Apparently it does go back to bareknuckle days. It was banned in order to reduce cuts/bleeding which a backhand (without gloves) was likely to do.

Yep, and Lennox Lewis used the backhand right over the region that cut Vitali's eye just before we saw the blood. I didn't believe it until I saw it.

Tell me again why you bring up Vitali's loss to Lennox here?

[SportsRatings]

This has reminded me of an incident years ago when I was sparring with my mate who had no boxing experience, he jumped in the air and punched me on the top of the head whilst airborne a bit like the Muay Thai guys do, I was like “what the fcuk was that” ! He asked me if it was against the rules and I said it wasn’t the done thing but I didn’t know of any rule against it which perplexed me a bit!

Superman Punch

I never understood why the MMA guys still do it because it takes so much speed, timing, etc to actually hit someone with it. You're more likely to get kayoed yourself trying it on somebody than you kayoing someone with a Superman Punch.

The Superman punch in MMA, is a feint combined with a punch, which is why it works. The feint comes from the leg which fakes a Thai kick and makes the opponent expect a low attack, but you switch to a punch instead, springing off the grounded leg. It looks weird but can be pretty effective. It's not meant to be a knockout punch, but neither is a jab and sometimes people go down from a jab.

Of course in boxing it doesn't work because you don't have to defend kicks. But in combat where you have to defend kicks, it's a decent weapon and it doesn't make you more vulnerable than any other technique.

[gilgamesh]

Apparently it does go back to bareknuckle days. It was banned in order to reduce cuts/bleeding which a backhand (without gloves) was likely to do.

Yep, and Lennox Lewis used the backhand right over the region that cut Vitali's eye just before we saw the blood. I didn't believe it until I saw it.

I don't recall seeing a backhand at any point in that bout. I've heard somebody blame it on his laces before though.