Rabbit Punches

[Sable&Whitefish]

You see refs get on fighters all the time for throwing rabbit punches, inside punches to the back of the head. What I've heard is that as opposed to when you get hit in the chin and your head can move a lot to absorb the blow, getting hit in the back of the head doesn't allow for that absorption because your head can't move so there is a danger that your brain gets disconnected from your spinal cord or something like that (???) and you can die.

I was wondering if you historians knew of cases where serious injuries or death were caused by rabbit punches. I see fighters throw them and get warned for them all the time despite the fact they're considered illegal, is the likelihood of serious injury pretty low?

[GrandpaBernard]

This happened outside of boxing but I was sitting on a chair with wheels and once backed my head into a table corner.

Similar to a strike to the balls it doesn't take much force to get pain.

[Heavyhands420]

Prichard colon is in bad shape now because some rabbit punches. And Wladimir Klitschko was hurt by corrie sanders by rabbit punches and was hurt bad during the fight

[QueensburyRules]

--- Poor Colon a good boxer who never learned how to fight.

He kept putting his noggin in harms way while the ref did nothing and his corner clueless. Then all ignored he was in collapse to dove him out for more.

Commish, ref, other fighter and both corners should have been banned.

Wlad took an accidental headbutt followed by a straight left by Sanders that first put him down, a combo that would down anyone. It was undefeated, Rampaging Sam Peter with his leaping, looping swings to the back of Wlad's noggin, prob 20 such shots, but Wlad had him staggering by the end and won a rousing fight by decision.

[The Old LefHook]

Fullmer was a man you did not want to clinch with.

[Anthony342]

And one of Holyfield's only knockdowns in his prime was in the first Bowe fight on a rabbit punch. The danger also is you're hitting the brain stem, which is a lot thinner and less protected, much like the forehead, which is why headbutts are not allowed as well, which also cause cuts more easily than most other spots on the head. I don't know why the UFC initially allowed them. I believe it was because the Gracies wanted to allow everything so there would be no excuses, but they should've known from the history of boxing the dangers of rabbit punches and headbutts, not to mention landing punches without wearing any gloves or hand wraps. They eventually learned though, even if it had to be the hard way. A few guys would even already go in with gloves before it became the standard because they knew. Now everybody knows.

[OctoberRed]

Prichard colon is in bad shape now because some rabbit punches. And Wladimir Klitschko was hurt by corrie sanders by rabbit punches and was hurt bad during the fight

Colon is a perfect example.

[escudo]

And one of Holyfield's only knockdowns in his prime was in the first Bowe fight on a rabbit punch. The danger also is you're hitting the brain stem, which is a lot thinner and less protected, much like the forehead, which is why headbutts are not allowed as well, which also cause cuts more easily than most other spots on the head. I don't know why the UFC initially allowed them. I believe it was because the Gracies wanted to allow everything so there would be no excuses, but they should've known from the history of boxing the dangers of rabbit punches ad headbutts, not to mention landing punches without wearing any gloves or hand wraps. They eventually learned though, even if it had to be the hard way. A few guys would even already go in with gloves before it became the standard because they knew. Now everybody knows.

The evoloution of the early UFC ruleset could be a book in and of itself. It was legal to just gouge open cuts until like UFC 33. Tito Ortiz did it and got a doctor stoppage win. The technique was banned immedately after. I miss the wild west days of early MMA.

[Taha93]

Chuck wepner did that in 1975 fight with Ali, here is perfect example of rabbit punches and see what Ali did in response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1te3e-Dm8wI

[Anthony342]

The evoloution of the early UFC ruleset could be a book in and of itself. It was legal to just gouge open cuts until like UFC 33. Tito Ortiz did it and got a doctor stoppage win. The technique was banned immedately after. I miss the wild west days of early MMA.

Yeah, some of that I miss too, like when Tank Abbot used to get a submission win by driving his knee into the face of an opponent on the ground or when guys used to grab the fence to avoid a takedown. They should still allow grabbing of the fence, that's just good defense. They've taken away too much. There's a classic Rickson Gracie fight in Pride where an opponent held onto the ring ropes for dear life, so Rickson just keeps nailing him with punches to the face until he finally gets him to let go and submits him with an armbar, one of two armbar submission wins over Takada.