Liver Shot (diary entry)

Tonight’s technical session took a look at the stand-up range and continued our stylistic training arc, bringing the focus onto looping punches (for want of a better word). My client’s overall style strategy has been to fight defensively, drawing attacks onto set-ups for counter-attacks. This includes dropping the lead hand to feed jabs from a more relaxed position and also to bait attacks. A lot of this style has been dependent on slipping straight punches and clinching to wear an opponent down. So far we have looked at high-line looping punches such as the overhand punch, which is used for attack, and the anchor punch, which works off drawing an opponent and therefore relevant to my client’s current style strategy. This has been sometimes used to underlie areas outside of Western Boxing, such as round kicks and single leg takedowns delivered off the main attack line. Tonight we completed the looping punches found in Western boxing with a look at the tactics surrounding the shovel hook/liver punch. The punch comes in at 45 degrees in an upward motion and is somewhere between an uppercut and a conventional hook. If we were to see the upper body as a clock face, this punch is coming in at around 5 O’clock to hit the large intestine or stomach and 7 O’clock to hit the liver. The liver is the prize and its importance as a target has been downplayed since the days of longer bouts. In the heyday of Bareknuckle Boxing the body was a very important target to be mentally dissected by a fighter. Punches below the heart, to the solar plexus and to the floating ribs were all emphasized. Hitting the liver was always on the cards as it often ate into an opponent’s stamina like no other target. Setting up the liver shot fits in well with my client’s overarching strategy. The area is naturally protected by an orthodox guard. The arms tend to rest here when I person has his hands up. A good way to open it up is to draw an attack by the respective arm. Therefore my client feigned to his opponent’s left (his right) with a 45 degree footstep, dropping his lead hand to bait a head target. This encourages his opponent to go for a head shot with his right hand, leaving his liver target open. Here my client doubles back in his footwork, hitting his opponent with the liver shot. This tactic ties in with the baiting approach of my client’s style. The set-up requires speed for the fighter to beat his opponent to the punch. We then combined this set-up with a shovel hook to the opponent’s left and then back in again with the liver shot. We also tagged on the anchor punch by withdrawing after the three punch combination. Bringing kicking into the picture, we used the set up to execute a lead round kick across the mid-section. This was followed on with an overhand or cross. Moving onto the clinch range we looked at a Muay Thai method using an inside grip, pushing the head down and raising the arm simultaneously. Stepping off at 45 degrees, the fighter then throws in a diagonal knee strike. Here is an interesting piece on the liver shot. And here is MMA star, Bas Rutten teaching the liver shot off a conventional high hook punch.