Bolo punch

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A bolo punch is a punch used in boxing. Bolo punches are not one of the traditional boxing punches (jab, uppercut, hook and cross) and they are seldom used; much less so during a combination.

The bolo punch might not even be thrown at all. It really is a circular motion that one boxer does with one of his arms to distract the opponent, causing the opponent either to take his eyes off the attacker's other arm, or actually focus on the fighter's other arm. When the opponent concentrates on the punch that is circling, usually the bolo puncher would sneak in a punch with the hand that is being sustained. When the rival concentrates on the hand that is not moving, then the bolo puncher usually uses the bolo punch to attack his target.

Ceferino Garcia is commonly referred to as the inventor of the bolo punch. Though a Filipino boxer named Macario Flores was reported to be using the punch in 1924, according an article that appeared in the Tacoma News-Tribune. Garcia, Kid Gavilan and Sugar Ray Leonard are widely recognized as three of the best bolo punchers in boxing history.

When asked once how he came to develop the wide sweeping uppercut, Garcia said when he was a youth he used to cut sugarcane in the Philippine Islands, with a bolo knife, which he wielded in a sweeping uppercut fashion.

Two of the most famous cases of a fighter using the bolo punch were when Leonard avenged his loss to Roberto Duran (see "The No Más Fight") and when Leonard drew with Thomas Hearns in their second fight (see: Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas Hearns).