Being the shorter fighter in a fight is usually seen as a disadvantage, especially by the general public. It’s true, it does make things harder when you’re the smaller man, at least if you don’t know how to properly fight a taller opponent.
The good news is there are strategies you can implement that can turn the tables in your favor when fighting an adversary who has both a reach and height advantage over you. In this post, let’s talk about what assets you will need to implement the strategies discussed and the strategies themselves.
Why It’s Hard to Fight Taller Opponents
Before we dive into the skills you’ll need and the strategy to implement, let’s discuss why fighting taller opponents is a challenge. Then, we’ll break down how to overcome those challenges.
They Can Reach You When You Can’t Reach Them
One of the most frustrating things about fighting a taller foe is that their reach is also usually longer. Which means if they keep good distance they can measure you and fire off on you without worrying about getting hit back. Being the taller guy you don't have to put yourself in a position where you have to “take one to give one.” Even a half of centimeter reach can be the difference between you being able to hit your opponent without getting hit back. When you multiply that, it gets just a little more difficult.
They Can See You Coming From a Mile Away
Even worse than having a hard time reaching, is reaching, but having a hard time landing. Being shorter, it is much easier to get countered due to missing shots, and you miss those shots because the taller opponent has much more time to prepare no matter how fast you are. This is because before you let off a punch, you have to cut the distance, which creates two actions that have to take place. First, you get close, second, you fire off. This makes it easier for them to see you coming to attack, at which point they can plan to defend, counter your shot, or time you on the way in. Sounds bad, don't worry, we have solutions down below.
Countering is Hard
One of the most frustrating things is when they fire off a shot and miss, it is really difficult to counter. This is due to reason number one up top, they can reach you, but you can’t reach them. So even when they are in striking range to hit you, you may not be in striking range to hit them back. So rather than a "hit and don't get hit fight," it becomes a "got hit and didn't hit back fight."
That’s okay though because we have solutions.
Let’s talk about what you’ll need to have, or work on to implement the strategies.
To jump to strategy just go here:
Otherwise, let’s get into what you’ll need:
Assets Needed to Beat a Taller Opponent
Here are some of the tools that may be required if you want to successfully implement the strategies against your taller opponent.
#1 Good footwork
The first and most important ability you need is good footwork and agility. When you're fighting someone taller, you will have to constantly cut the distance. Whether you're stepping in, stepping out, or spinning your opponent, you will have to manage your feet quickly and efficiently. A lot of the strategy revolves around moving in on your opponent quickly, cutting the distance and getting within striking range. It all starts with quick feet.
#2 Hand Speed
After you cut the distance, you will have to make sure to have the speed to land on your opponent. Taller opponents already see you coming because of their size advantage, so to eliminate that, you will have to have fast hands on top of fast feet. A lot of what you will have to do will involve striking your opponent mid-attack or being fast enough to bait them with punches and countering. Your hands will have to be at the least “fast enough” for two of the strategies.
If speed isn’t your strength, we have a solution for that, but it always helps.
Related Post: Increase Hand Speed
#3 Good Timing
If there is one thing that beats speed, it's timing. This will help you tremendously in a fight against a bigger opponent who has a reach or height advantage. You will have to know when to step in, when to throw, when to feint and when to counter. Timing is definitely something you can practice so don’t worry if it’s not a skill set you come with.
# 4 Good Feints
To throw the taller opponent off and learn how they react to different punches, we will have to feint. Feinting is the art of pretending to throw a punch just to see where your opponent makes mistakes or see how they will react to that particular punch. A good feint usually comes with the minimal expense of energy, which means minimal movement on your part, but a maximum response from your opponent. It is a good idea to practice these in the mirror until you perfect them.
#5 Power is a Bonus
Power is by no means a must to defeat a taller opponent, however, it is a huge bonus.
Why?
Because if you have power then you have the ability to hurt your opponent, which means you have the ability to scare him. After they're hurt, they will be fighting in fear of getting hurt again and now their bodies will not be able to respond the same in the fight. Their V12 engine will be barely enough to give 4 cylinders of output. This will make it easier to keep the fight at your pace. If you don’t consider yourself a power puncher, there are ways to change that, you can read more about it here once you are with this post.
Read Related Post: Increasing Punching Power
How to Fight the Taller Opponent - The Strategy
There are a few ways to beat an opponent who is taller than you. It will all come down to your assets and the type of strategy you want to implement. It can also depend on how good your opponent is, so if one potion doesn't work, you may need to switch between styles until you get the sweet spot.
Option 1: Bait and Counter
There is a big misconception in the fighting world that if your opponent is taller you have to chase them around the ring, try and get a big shot on them as they tee off on you with jabs, kicks, and straights because they can see you coming from a mile away. Chasing a taller opponent around the ring(without a plan) is actually the worst thing you can do.
The biggest challenge when fighting a taller opponent is cutting the distance. If your taller opponent is on the back foot and circling the ring, then chasing them is falling right into their game. It’s already hard enough to cut the distance on your opponent when they are taller, when they are moving away it’s even harder and you will end up in their punch range every time you get close while staying out of your range to get to them.
The best thing to do is getting them to come to you and get them to commit.
What to do
The key here will be to get them to cut the distance for you.
3 Ways to Bait
So you will want to bait them to step in. This is done a few ways.
1. Stand Your Ground
One way to just get close enough so they feel they can cut the distance. Stay just out of punching range and push your gloves out forward, this will distort your opponents sense of distance. Here you are simply standing in the center of the ring with your gloves out just to make them feel they are closer than they are. Once they come in for a shot, dodge, and counter.
Instead of using your gloves you can also lean in with your head. This puts you in punching range and wide open for your opponent and 9 times out of 10, they will throw a straight to see if they can hit you. At this point, you can do the pull counter and then get out of the way.
Here is an example of Floyd doing this very thing:
2. Back Foot Bait
The second option is to bait them by what the casual boxing fan call “running.” This is especially good to do with an opponent who likes to fight moving backward themselves. The key here is to get them to chase you around the ring instead. When you're on your back foot and moving around the ring, they will start taking bigger steps to track you down and land a punch. At this point, they're cutting the distance for you once again. We're taking the biggest challenge of fighting a taller opponent, and getting them to expend their energy to help us overcome it instead.
As they're tracking you down, stop and feint to see how they react to the punches. Try a couple jabs to the body to see if they land since its the shortest distance between you two and will get them focused on that. Once the jabs start landing and you see an opening through the feints, start exploiting it.
Floyd is the master baiter(enjoy the laugh). Here is another example of him doing this against Chico Corrales.
Watch as he uses Chico's momentum against him and quickly uses it to cut the distance. You will also notice that when Floyd threw the hook, Corrales went to block the jab. This is because Floyd has been shooting jabs to the head and body all night and feinting to see how Corrales begins reacting to them. Once he saw an opening, he got on the back foot, then struck at the right time.
That is a great fight to watch overall if you want to see this tactic play out over the course of 10 rounds.
3. The High-Pressure Bait
The third bait is not for the faint of heart. This will require a good peekaboo style approach. This is the style Mike Tyson was famous for. In all honesty, he was the best fighter to watch when it comes to trying to learn how to defeat taller opponents. This is because all Mike Tyson did is fight taller opponents, and dismantle them.
So the third way to bait is to pressure your opponents, much like Mike Tyson did. However, if you watch Tyson’s fights closely, you will see he didn't always throw when he stepped in. His plan was to get so close to the opponents that it makes them feel that they have to commit to a punch. Then he takes that opportunity to duck and counter.
This does a few things:
One is it exhausts the opponent mentally and physically because they are no longer fighting at their own pace.
Two is it makes them set to punch which, again, makes them cut some of the distance for you.
Also, keeps them off balance so that they can never really get a good shot off. They're only given a split second to set their shot and land it, because of this they're both telegraphing and throwing punches not up to par with their full potential.
Here is a good example of it:
Option 2: Intercept
The second way is to intercept your taller opponents strikes. You will be borrowing a concept from Bruce Lee’s “Way of the Intercepting Fist.” We actually seen many fighters do this pre/ post-Bruce as well. Bruce was just the first to bring it to the forefront of our minds. However, men like Ali, Mayweather, Tyson, and Conor McGregor all employ this tactic.
Because one of the biggest challenges with fighting taller opponents is cutting the distance, we have to use their motion to help cut the distance for us.
Stay Just Out of Punching Range
The first thing you want to do is stay close enough to your opponent so that he feels he can get you but just out of punching range so that he can’t. The goal here is to get him to try and cut the distance on you to strike.
Strike When They Strike
The next step will require speed and timing. When they're ready to strike, you will also strike with an intercepting punch.
This can be a:
- Right hand over their jab
- Right hook under the jab
- Left hook over a right
Etc...
The key here is to land a punch while they are at full extension before they had a chance to bring it back. Guys like Mayweather, Tyson and Roy Jones were masters at this.
Watch this beautiful left hook over right jab interception, with a follow up straight right, all before Reggie could bring his one punch back.
This is good to practice in sparring. Time your opponents punches and fire off at the same time while getting your head out of the way of fire.
To get good at this you will have to pay attention to the nuances. Watching your opponent's shoulder twitch, watching how their body moves, how their feet set, and how they react to your feints. Once the opponent starts giving clear signs of which punch they're going to throw, it’s time to intercept.
Here is a feint to bait, then a right hook intercept under the jab that ends the fight.
Keep in mind you will need to be fast to do this.
Option 3: Smother
The truth is the first two options aren't for everyone. If you feel you might lack the hand speed necessary to pull off the above-mentioned options or maybe your style is just more rough and rugged, there is another thing you can do that is actually super effective. That gets your opponent on the ropes and smother them.
Why?
When fighting a taller opponent their advantage is the range. Not only does it keep you at a distance, it is also necessary for them to get all the leverage they can possibly get on their punches, To get good punches off, they need a full range of motion. When you smother them you take away all their weapons and put the advantages in your favor.
For this you will need to be good at two things:
- Cutting off the ring
- Inside Fighting
Cutting off the ring
First up is cutting off the ring. If you want to smother your opponent you will have to cut off the ring and trap them on the ropes. When your foe is circling away from you, a lot of fighters make the mistake of just following their opponent and trying to speed up to catch them. This is a fatal mistake. Not only are you expending unnecessary energy but also leaving yourself open to a shot. No matter how fast you go, all your opponent has to do is turn the pivot and you're back to chasing. The better and more simple way is to cut them off.
Because the “Ring” is actually a Square, cutting off your opponent is the effective way to trap them in a corner or on the ropes.
Here is the best and most simple explanation of how to do this.
Pretend you facing your opponent is always north.
In that case, to cut off the ring, you don't want to go north, south, east or west. What you want to do is go NE, SE, NW, or SW.
This way you are coming forward, but at an angle, which will give your opponent limited escape routes.
Here is an example:
Inside Fighting
Once you cut off the ring and have your opponent successfully trapped, its a matter of pummeling him.
The first thing you want to do when you are on the inside is position your gloves, right on top of your opponents so that your palms are touching his fists. Do a light touch so that it isn't noticeable pressure. What this will do is serves a radar for when they're about to throw a particular punch or retreat to either their right or left. This way you know what's coming so you can either counter, block, or keep them on the ropes.
At this point, you can dig their head into their chest and pummel away.
Some of the best combos to use on the inside are ones your opponent doesn't expect.
Usually, that means throwing a combo with one hand.
The common combos are usually a left, right, or right left variation. So what you want to do is switch it up with a double right or double left combo.
I.e.
- Right Hook to the Body, Right Hook to the Head
- Two Left Hooks to the Head
- Left Hook to the Body, Left Uppercut to the Head
The best fight to watch this in action is Maidana vs Mayweather 1.
Maidana did an excellent job of smothering Mayweather on the ropes and that is what made the fight so close. It’s also what Castillo did in arguably the only unofficial “loss” Mayweather ever had.
Combining All Three Bait, Intercept, and Smother
The best way, of course, is to use a combination of all three.
This would basically be a step by step of all the things we have mentioned above.
So you would first bait your opponent, preferably the high pressure or center bait.
Then when they take the bait, you intercept their punch rather than counter and follow up with a barrage that either leads them to the ropes or if they're already on the ropes, smothers and pummels them.
A master at this is Lomachenko. He has a high-pressure style where he walks his opponents down, baits them to commit, makes them miss, and makes them pay.
Learn to Love Jabs and Feints
Regardless of the strategy you choose, one thing that you will have to do consistently well against a taller foe is the jab and feint.
During the fight what you want to do is switch up between high jabs and low jabs. You want to throw the jabs to the body more because that is the closest target for you to hit. What it will also do is distract your opponent and make them focus on defending the body. Make sure to mix in feints to see if they begin reacting to them. Once you see they are either trying to counter or block down low, then you take advantage of it and strike where they are open to creating opportunities with the feint. You can watch the Corrales vs Mayweather fight above to see him implement this tactic well and in most Mike Tyson fights you will see him a jab to the body before he goes up for an opening.
Practice, Perfect, Perform
All that’s left to do is to take all these tips and practice them on the bag, practice them in sparring, practice them while you’re shadow boxing. Think about them while you’re eating, taking a shower, etc. Keep practicing until you get it down to intuition.
The key to fighting taller opponents is turning their advantages into disadvantages.
Drop me a comment below if you have any questions.
Brawl all day!
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