To the body we shall go!
- jamie03066
- Apr 25
- 5 min read
24.04.2025
"Kill the body and the head dies" is a phrase attributed to Hunter S. Thompson, although he is not its originator. Thompson, a pioneering journalist and author, was referring to solving problems by attacking them at the root. World heavyweight champion "Smokin'" Joe Frazier also popularised the phrase coming from an almost literal interpretation. Perhaps I am being a coy when I say, "almost literal", because one thing that Frazier had when he remorselessly went after Muhammad Ali's body in their titanic and hugely destructive third encounter was bad intentions.
There is a prevailing view, at least amongst the more old school inclined Boxing coaches, that the art of working the body is waning. There are various reasons for this, including the influence of amateur boxing. However, the body is an important target that should not be neglected. Lee Hasdell told me on our podcast episode that he only taught his child students body shots in sparring for the first year in order to build their confidence.
Likewise, coach Brendan Ingle famously emphasised body shot sparring. His fighters were known for their fast reflexes and creative footwork. However, what might seem surprising is their knockout percentage. Of the four world champions his gym produced, they not only all were feared knockout merchants but they also had very low knockout losses. 29 of Johnny Nelson's 45 victories came via knockout whereas he was only stopped once via TKO. Similarly Junior Witter also only lost once to a stoppage and that was when he refused to continue in the eighth round, again not a clear knockout, but over half his victories came inside the time. Kell Brook had the most number of stoppage losses, the only one of the four who went down for the count, however, even then it was the one time and these three losses were the only defeats in his entire professional career. He won 40 fights and 28 of them were by knockout of some description. Meanwhile, arguably Ingle's most famous and notorious world champion, "Prince" Naseem Hamed took knockout victories in 31 of his 37 fights and was never stopped. His single loss was via judges' decision in his penultimate fight.
Some of the greatest boxers in history worked the body. Emerging from the pre-gloves era, targeting the body had become an art unto itself. Bare-knuckle pugilists often fought for much longer than those who worked under the Queensbury Rules. Punches to the head were thrown sparingly, designed more to create cuts in much the same way that nak muays use elbows today. Throws were a big feature, designed to disable an opponent rather than just land them on their backs, as is done in wrestling, judo and even MMA. Boxers like Bob Fitzsimmons brought trademark body shots to the gloved era at the turn of the 20th century. His defeat of Jim Corbett for the world title, becoming the lightest man to do this, came via using a shifting lead uppercut to the solar plexus. The move, a hallmark of Fitzsimmons' fighting style, demonstrated that even with gloves on punches to the body could still end a fight.
Meanwhile Jack Johnson, was a master clincher who bullied his opponents savagely on the inside. In the 20s, Jack Dempsey tore as much into the body as he did the head as the hook punch evolved into a lethal mid and close range weapon. Almost three decades later, Rocky Marciano was a non-stop assault machine whose short arms and stature in the heavyweight division meant that he often had to work the body to get the head in range. His successor, Floyd Patterson, similarly did not have size on his side and used the peek-a-boo style to load up on body to head hooks and uppercuts. This was somewhat perfected decades later with another peek-a-boo artist, Mike Tyson. Between them the likes of Joe Frazier, another shorter fighter, terrified the heavyweight division with his strategy of burrowing into the body until the head was made available.
The heavyweights were far from the only fighters to made the body shots a regular part of their arsenal. With working the body being a big part of Boxing for most of the 20th century, it's not like this was a novel approach. However, many of the great swarmers like the legendary Henry Armstrong and Jake La Motta were feared for the way they would make pounding the body a big part of their game. Sugar Ray Robinson, one of the best rounded, most adaptable and often considered by many experts, including Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and Joe Louis amongst many historians and sports pundits, to be the greatest pound-for-pound boxer of all time, included notable body shots in his considerable arsenal. He greatly influenced the use of the body jab, adding another dimension to body shots. Robinson made it one of his signature moves, demonstrating that hitting the body is not just about winding an opponent. He used it to create range, drop levels and set up other techniques. Leonard, who idolised him to the extent that he borrowed his name, put into his repertoire during the 1980s.
In addition to the body jab and the solar plexus punch, the liver shot and the spleen shot have helped elevate a number of fighters to the Hall of Fame status. I can list them all but Roberto Duran, Ricky Hatton and Alexus Arguello should be listed. And it should be noted that although body shots aren't as common today in Boxing as they were throughout the past century, MMA might be picking up the slack.
My client, now in the final hour of his second course, is in his sixties and we are exploring tactics that work to his particular abilities. Body shots are a great resource for wearing down a faster opponent and, as described above, used by a lot of older boxers. Learning how to close the distance and tie up opponent's is an old trick designed to take the legs out of a fighter. Using shoulder-to-shoulder situations and tie-ups as opportunities to dig into the body were also tactics I brought into our last round of sparring.
Combinations that came out of the sparring included, cross/lead hook/cross, hook/cross/hook and rear hook/lead uppercut.
The routine went as follows:
3-minute rounds:
Body jab only sparring
Body jab and cross only sparring
Body jab, cross and lead hook only sparring
Body jab, cross, lead hook and rear hook only sparring
Body jab, cross, lead hook, rear hook, lead uppercut only sparring
Body jab, cross, lead hook, rear hook, lead uppercut, rear uppercut sparring
Focus mitts and belly pad - a mixture of set and autonomous combinations always featuring body shots
Heavy bag - 2 minutes working all combinations used in the lesson, 1 minute constant body shots
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