BoxRec

When will these Trainers and Boxers finally realize that the Peek-A-Boo Defense is utterly useless? Ruslan Provodnikov is yet another example of it. This poor guy spent most of his career as the Freddie Roach's ugly stepchild who wasn't worth Freddie's time. I thought that maybe now that he has a trainer that was fully committed to him, they would finally switch up his defensive posture but it was the same old Ruslan last night.

This style of defense does not nothing but alert your opponent that they are now free to unload punches without the fear of comeback fire. John Molina Jr. was free to unload the whole night except for the 2 rounds in which Ruslan dropped his hands and actually started to box. Once he did that, Molina had no answer and knew he was ready to be countered if he kept throwing. Those were Ruslan's two best round I've seen him box professionally. He danced and showed some pretty nifty technique.

It's pretty sad that no one ever cared enough about this kid to protect him and help him prosper. At the very least, he would have staved off some hellacious beatings that will probably have long lasting ramifications. The Peek-A-Boo defense is an absolute loser.

A fighter's style is often dictated to him by his physical attributes. I can't imagine a style other than the PeekABoo working as effectively for Mike Tyson for instance... he was hardly likely to swing from the hip like Hearns.

Ricky_ wrote:A fighter's style is often dictated to him by his physical attributes. I can't imagine a style other than the PeekABoo working as effectively for Mike Tyson for instance... he was hardly likely to swing from the hip like Hearns.

Precisely, coupled with the speed of foot and bob and weave style of Tyson, it was incredibly effective, Mike in his brief prime, when he executed that style was extremely hard to hit.

The style doesn't work for everyone, as not everyone is suited to it, or good enough to make it work.

Enzo Mac and Amir should teach defence

Shoulder roll seems to work. Punch blocking is a lost art.

The Peek-A-Boo isn't close to the worst defense.

For me, the worst is the cross-armed defense employed by Ken Norton, Joe Frazier, at times by Adrien Broner... and at times by George Foreman in his 2nd coming... Because you sometimes block rights with your right hand or left shoulder, follow up left-hooks can nail the crap out of you.. The cross-armed can work when walking down light hitting boxers, because they're throwing mostly straight punches at you and generally moving away from you.. Against punchers who stay on top of you the defense falls apart..

Like the first time Foreman floored Norton he hit him with 5 rights in a row and didn't miss one.. He was on top of Kenny, couldn't miss him, and battered the crap out him.. Foreman-Frazier was ridiculous.. Against Frazier, Foreman just smashed him with 45's.. Frazier couldn't even get set to punch back effectively.. Broner couldn't fight Maidana or Porter effectively.. All he did was grab and wrestle and try to survive, because those guys can hit pretty good at close range.. Foreman generally stayed away from punchers when he used the defense.. The closest he came was Stewart who punched the crap out of him and Holyfield who was more a boxer than a puncher.. When Holyfield boxed Bowe he beat him.. When he tried to battle Bowe he got into trouble because he wasn't really a puncher.. But even at 208 pounds, anytime Holyfield stayed in there and kept throwing at Foreman he ripped him up real good, because George couldn't punch back effectively with that defense.

All defenses have their limitations. Particularly if your opponent is a better boxer than you anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRPjJEuOOC0


Worked pretty well here

Like a Boss wrote:All defenses have their limitations. Particularly if your opponent is a better boxer than you anyway.

The orthodox defense as employed by Joshua, Kovalev, Ward, Golovkin, Brook, Spence, Crawford, Lomachenko, Rigondeaux, and Roman Gonzalez works very well.. I don't see any limitations inside or outside.. It takes longer to master because the stance isn't geared to defense.. Most guys who think they have an orthodox defense have a very screwed up defense, because most Boxing coaches don't know what they doing.

The so-called orthodox defense is balanced for offense, defense, and countering. If you pull your hands in farther for the Peek-A-Boo, you can't necessarily defend better. A puncher like Sonny Liston beat Patterson so ridiculously easily it was a joke.. Two 1st round KOs.. Patterson couldn't get close and couldn't get away from the much more powerful, and longer limbed Liston. He couldn't get an effective punch off. Because as he hid behind his Peek-A-booing gloves his punches had a longer distance to travel to get to the target. He was getting ripped by Liston every time he tried to throw back at him. Patterson never faced a real Heavyweight puncher before Liston because Johansson wasn't a skilled hooker, uppercutter, body puncher, or combination thrower. Ingo was extremely crude for a Heavyweight Champ.

Patterson fought Archie Moore who was a decent puncher -- but Moore was 42, a short Light Heavyweight, and had a cross-armed defense. Even worse.

Kalan wrote:

Like a Boss wrote:All defenses have their limitations. Particularly if your opponent is a better boxer than you anyway.

The orthodox defense as employed by Joshua, Kovalev, Ward, Golovkin, Brook, Spence, Crawford, Lomachenko, Rigondeaux, and Roman Gonzalez works very well.. I don't see any limitations inside or outside.. It takes longer to master because the stance isn't geared to defense.. Most guys who think they have an orthodox defense have a very screwed up defense, because most Boxing coaches don't know what they doing.

The so-called orthodox defense is balanced for offense, defense, and countering. If you pull your hands in farther for the Peek-A-Boo, you can't necessarily defend better. A puncher like Sonny Liston beat Patterson so ridiculously easily it was a joke.. Two 1st round KOs.. Patterson couldn't get close and couldn't get away from the much more powerful, and longer limbed Liston. He couldn't get an effective punch off. Because as he hid behind his Peek-A-booing gloves his punches had a longer distance to travel to get to the target. He was getting ripped by Liston every time he tried to throw back at him. Patterson never faced a real Heavyweight puncher before Liston because Johansson wasn't a skilled hooker, uppercutter, body puncher, or combination thrower. Ingo was extremely crude for a Heavyweight Champ.

Patterson fought Archie Moore who was a decent puncher -- but Moore was 42, a short Light Heavyweight, and had a cross-armed defense. Even worse.

Good post. But the reality is no defence is perfect or everybody who ever pulled on a glove would be using it.

^ that

A peek-a-boo style can work for certain fighters. In addition to the aforementioned Tyson, I believe Winky Wright and Ike Quartey were two fighters who successfully employed the peek-a-boo style. The important thing is, you have to possess a powerful weapon to go along with it. Quartey had a phenomenal jab which he could whip out in a blur of an eye from his peek-a-boo stance. Often, his jab landed with more force than a power punch compared to his opponents. Wright's jab was not as devastating, but it was still a very solid jab aided Winky's brilliant counter punches.

On the flip side, Quartey's countryman Josh Clottey employed the same peek-a-boo style as Ike but without a great jab. While he had a respectable career, he got completely outclassed when he stepped up in class against Pacquaio. The same thing can be said for Arthur Abraham when he stepped up. With no other weapon to aid the peek-a-boo style, an elite fighter will just pot shot you en route to a comfortable points win.

matador wrote:A peek-a-boo style can work for certain fighters. In addition to the aforementioned Tyson, I believe Winky Wright and Ike Quartey were two fighters who successfully employed the peek-a-boo style. The important thing is, you have to possess a powerful weapon to go along with it. Quartey had a phenomenal jab which he could whip out in a blur of an eye from his peek-a-boo stance. Often, his jab landed with more force than a power punch compared to his opponents. Wright's jab was not as devastating, but it was still a very solid jab aided Winky's brilliant counter punches.

On the flip side, Quartey's countryman Josh Clottey employed the same peek-a-boo style as Ike but without a great jab. While he had a respectable career, he got completely outclassed when he stepped up in class against Pacquaio. The same thing can be said for Arthur Abraham when he stepped up. With no other weapon to aid the peek-a-boo style, an elite fighter will just pot shot you en route to a comfortable points win.

Quartey didn't really peak-a-boo, did he? Wasn't his guard more high and tight?

Stuarty30 wrote:Shoulder roll seems to work. Punch blocking is a lost art.

Its not like punch blocking was ever a popular defence. And it is still employed nowadays by some. Ward does that, he did it numerous times in his last fight vs Barrera.

I wouldn't call it the worst defence. Different methods work better for different fighters depending on their abilities/limitations. As others have said, if there was a perfect defence everyone would use it, but there isn't, all methods of doing everything in boxing have their advantages and disadvantages. One thing about the peek-a-boo defence is that it can very easily make you a human punching bag if you don't move your head. We've seen it with the likes of Provodnikov, it can make you an easy target if you don't do it right. To be honest, I wouldn't even consider what the likes of Provodnikov do to be an example of "peek-a-boo" defence, it's more "ineffective" defence or just "plain stupid" defence. Without the head movement it's more like what someone described as "high and tight". Just because the hands are up doesn't make it "peek-a-boo" in my eyes.

Another thing about it is that I think it requires more speed, reflexes, athleticism etc than the traditional defence. Once that athleticism and those reflexes go, as we saw with Tyson, it becomes pretty useless.

Leonid wrote:

Stuarty30 wrote:Shoulder roll seems to work. Punch blocking is a lost art.

Its not like punch blocking was ever a popular defence. And it is still employed nowadays by some. Ward does that, he did it numerous times in his last fight vs Barrera.

Punch blocking was a whole lot more common in the past than it is now. The first line of defence was the gloves.

"Keep you gloves up. Keep your gloves up" - remember that?

Now it is more commonly based on body movement and evasion.

Like a Boss wrote:

Leonid wrote:

Stuarty30 wrote:Shoulder roll seems to work. Punch blocking is a lost art.

Its not like punch blocking was ever a popular defence. And it is still employed nowadays by some. Ward does that, he did it numerous times in his last fight vs Barrera.

Punch blocking was a whole lot more common in the past than it is now. The first line of defence was the gloves.

"Keep you gloves up. Keep your gloves up" - remember that?

Now it is more commonly based on body movement and evasion.

The first line of defense has always been the feet.

Weren't Joe Choynski and Jack Johnson masters of punch blocking?

Cutman Scabbers wrote:

Like a Boss wrote:

Leonid wrote: Its not like punch blocking was ever a popular defence. And it is still employed nowadays by some. Ward does that, he did it numerous times in his last fight vs Barrera.

Punch blocking was a whole lot more common in the past than it is now. The first line of defence was the gloves.

"Keep you gloves up. Keep your gloves up" - remember that?

Now it is more commonly based on body movement and evasion.

The first line of defense has always been the feet.

Weren't Joe Choynski and Jack Johnson masters of punch blocking?

Point taken. But you need to be lightning quick on your feet to avoid a superman punch. Better your gloves are forming a guard for you as well.

Like a Boss wrote:

Cutman Scabbers wrote:

Like a Boss wrote:
Punch blocking was a whole lot more common in the past than it is now. The first line of defence was the gloves.

"Keep you gloves up. Keep your gloves up" - remember that?

Now it is more commonly based on body movement and evasion.

The first line of defense has always been the feet.

Weren't Joe Choynski and Jack Johnson masters of punch blocking?

Point taken. But you need to be lightning quick on your feet to avoid a superman punch. Better your gloves are forming a guard for you as well.

No doubt! I agree it is best to have more than one line of defense.

Who were the other great punch blockers? Maurice Blocker?

Cutman Scabbers wrote:

Like a Boss wrote:

Cutman Scabbers wrote:

The first line of defense has always been the feet.

Weren't Joe Choynski and Jack Johnson masters of punch blocking?

Point taken. But you need to be lightning quick on your feet to avoid a superman punch. Better your gloves are forming a guard for you as well.

No doubt! I agree it is best to have more than one line of defense.

Who were the other great punch blockers? Maurice Blocker?

Courtney Blocker is 6-0.

Like a Boss wrote:

Cutman Scabbers wrote:

Like a Boss wrote:
Point taken. But you need to be lightning quick on your feet to avoid a superman punch. Better your gloves are forming a guard for you as well.

No doubt! I agree it is best to have more than one line of defense.

Who were the other great punch blockers? Maurice Blocker?

Courtney Blocker is 6-0.

You sure? He looks around 5'9" to me.

Cutman Scabbers wrote:

Like a Boss wrote:

Cutman Scabbers wrote:

No doubt! I agree it is best to have more than one line of defense.

Who were the other great punch blockers? Maurice Blocker?

Courtney Blocker is 6-0.

You sure? He looks around 5'9" to me.

Boom Tish.