My dad used to box once upon a time, and when I was younger he used to spar with me sometimes. The one thing he always said, that he was constantly trying to drill into my head, was “KEEP YOUR HANDS UP!” He never let me get away with not keeping at least one hand up in front of my face. If I didn’t keep my guard up, he’d jab towards my face to remind me.
On the occasion that I do watch boxing on TV, the fighters usually seem to keep their hands up when they’re not themselves trying to get hits in - duh. It’s a very defensive sport! There’s more blocking and deflecting than there are direct strikes to the body’s vulnerable areas.
In movies, though, boxers NEVER keep their hands up! They always seem to have their hands at their chest level and sometimes even at their stomach level. They’re constantly getting clobbered in the head. Movie boxing seems like it’s 80% direct hits to the head! Even in movies that are about boxing - Rocky, Raging Bull, etc - the boxers always seem to have their hands every damn place except in front of their face.
I suspect that this is because in a movie, you want maximum action and drama, so you want maximum guys getting hit in the head. Seeing gloves pummeling other gloves just isn’t as exciting. Am I onto something here?
You also have stars, directors, and producers who do not want to “hide” their main box office attraction during times of compelling action.
On the other hand, I feel obliged to point out that at the highest levels of teh sport you have often found phenomenally successful fighters who do not consistently keep a high guard. (Says the ex-kickboxer who rarely kept a high guard but somehow managed to avoid phenomenal success.)
Once when I was watching a boxing match the guy winning the fight kept putting one or both his arms down and the commentators brought up this subject and some different reasons.
They said since he was a younger guy he had enough faith in his reflexes that he could pick his arm up before the other guy hit him and 2. That it is sort of an insult to the other boxer like he didn’t consider him a real threat.
Someone needs to watch the Foreman fight again. The rope-a-dope style consisted almost entirely of keeping his hands up. Cassius Clay kept his hands down a lot, but not in close quarters. He was young enough and and quick enough to get away with it at distance. The second part of his career, after he became Ali, his hands are up a lot more.
