Glossary

A rabbit punch is an illegal punch where one of the boxers hits the other boxer in the back of the head. Hits to the kidneys/back are also sometimes referred to as rabbit punches.

These are very dangerous hits and it makes perfect sense that they are illegal. Not only is the victim unaware of the incoming punch (as it is occurring behind them), but think for a moment of where they are hitting - base of the head where it attaches to the spine. Wouldn't take much to snap the brain off the brain stem or cause irreparable damage to the spine.

The pivot blow is an illegal strike in boxing.  Last time it was used "legally" was in the 32nd round of an 1889 fight between the original Jack Dempsey and George LaBlanche.  LaBlanche actually used the pivot blow twice in this fight, first time in the 26th round landing a whipping right onto the neck of Dempsey.  Then in the 32nd round, Dempsey let his guard down after believing LaBlanche was out of steam, when LaBlanche again did the big pivot and landing a crushing right on the bridge of Dempsey's nose sending him to the floor and winning LaBlanche the title.

Shortly after that, the New York Boxing Commission made the blow illegal.  Their reasoning apparently was out of respect for Dempsey and to prevent another poem from being written -- as one appeared in this case.  From what I can find, following is an excerpt of that poem on his unmarked grave, but doesn't seem overly "disrespectful" to me. 

A low blow is any punch that falls below the beltline.  In other words, if you punch someone in the gonads, the privates, the family jewels, the place where the sun don't shine, etc... you have just given a low blow.

In boxing, you get three hits before a point is deducted.  It is an illegal hit and when it happens, your opponent has up to 5 minutes to get himself ready to fight again (at least in professional boxing).  This is at the discretion of the referree who makes the decision based on what he thinks is the severity of the blow.

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, boxing associations and weight divisions were simple.  There was only a few sanctioning bodies and 8 weight divisions with one champion per division.  It was very clear who was the reigning champion.

Then the 1980's came and everything changed.  Sanctioning bodies sprung up all over the place.  All it took was a manager or promoter with the fee and their boxer could be fighting for the XYZ world title.  Hence, fans and the media started to dub all of these dubious titles a mixture of letters - or alphabet soup.

The buckshot punch was introduced to boxing in the 1930's by William Lawrence "Young" Stribling Jr, a Georgian heavyweight.  Consisting of a left jab, then the slightest hesitation to feint a right, immediately followed by a full blown right cross, it became a trademark punch that earned him over 100 KOs.

Young Stribling
Stribling had 290 fights over his professional career and wasn't finished when he was killed in a motorcycle accident.  According to BoxRec biograhies, Stribling was travelling about 35mph on his bike, waved to a friend in a passing car but failed to see a following car.  Reacting, but too late, he struck the car where the bumper crushed and nearly tore off his left foot (later to be amputated) sending him crashing to the pavement smashing his pelvis.

The term amateur is not unique to boxing.  Most professional sports you can think of also have amateurs.  What distinguishes them from the professionals is that they do not get paid for what they do.  The highest honour in the amateurs is an Olympic Gold. 

In boxing, depending on the country, a boxer has a set amount of time they can stay in the amateurs.  At some point they reach a certain age or skill level and they have one of two options - quit or turn pro.  You can look at a good proportion of professional boxers and dig up their amateur careers.

Also known as the ringname, a boxer's alias is a nickname that usually describes the type of boxer he is.  Usually, the boxer will choose his own alias or ringname, but more often than not, it is a name that the press or others have attached to him or her that has stuck.

The origin of aliases and ringnames in boxing may go back to the early days of boxing when boxers would assume an identity to fight in other states and places sooner than the allowed time limits following a loss or knockout.  Once federal IDs were put in place, it thwarted efforts to do this obviously due to the unique identification that could easily reveal a boxer's true identity.

Once you've mastered the basic boxing punches, you may want to consider adding some other more advanced boxing techniques and punches into your repertoire.  The bolo punch is just such a technique. It is not used very often and for reasons you'll soon learn, but if mastered can give you options in the ring. You'll be pretty hard pressed to find a lot of professional boxers who use it and probably even fewer amateur boxers. But, if you look hard enough...