Effective strikes on bodybuilders?

Anyone ever had a fight with a bodybuilder? What are some effective strikes you've used against them? Where are they most vulnerable?

Takedown

Actually the standard left hook to the liver is money. Straight right is also money (assuming untrained fighter). The body shot is good because alot of bodybuilder types think they can just "take it", if you have ever had a good liver shot you know this is just not so. The straight right is good becuase these guys fight stiff; again they just try to take it. So it makes them easy to tee off on.

lol yeh the straight right will knock the guy clean out. No matter how much you lift or train your muscles your chin will stay the same unless you already had a togh chin to begin with. Their neck muscles will aid them in taking shots but only for a limited time. Leg kicks still hurt them like a hell. They may be strong there but taking punishment is a different thing! and we all know the low leg kick is a great set up for a nice cross.

Also body buliders to tend to have very little aerobic stamina and will puff out quick and they will be slow. Thats IF they only body build.

leg kick after leg kick after leg kick.... should bring his ass down. Then knee to the head since he should be keeled over from the leg kicks

At the gym I sometimes go to, there`s one bodybuilder who likes to spar with me. He`s had some training before and he`s very fast for someone his size so he`s a good match for me. I almost always do better than him in terms of strikes, aggressiveness, effectiveness and conditioning but it`s always a very tough match.

He usually ends up having to stop our matches due to lack of conditioning. The kind of sparring we do is similar to kyokushin style minus ANY strikes to the head (he can`t be going into a bodybuilding competition with a broken nose and black eyes after all...). We spar full-contact with no protective equipment and all targets below the neck are legal, minus the groin. Any grappling we do is incidental, only allowed if we close the gap and or fall to the ground. He`s never trained in grappling so despite his far superior strength I always tap him out if it goes to the ground, though he isn`t an easy opponent.

He and I are both able to take a lot of punishment so we occasionally end up fighting toe-to-toe, shot-for-shot. Striking him in the body is tempting since it`s such a big target but with his rock-hard abs it`s rarely effective. Only rarely does a single shot to the solar plexus prove effective on him but when it does, it`s pretty sweet :). Striking to the legs however is quite a different matter. Again, he`s very tough and his legs are rock-hard, but repeated shin-strikes to the legs take their toll. So far, that`s the best method of taking him down that I`ve found. Of course if this were a real fight, I`d be going for the groin, eyes, throat, chin, etc.

Lautaro

What about kicking to the side of the knee instead of the thigh? Is this an effective technique? I'm referring to a self defence situation not sparring with a partner.

Doesn't matter. Same as you would anyone else. If the bodybuilder is not train...he'll get KO...most likely he'll throw the HULK HOGAN type punches...or try to grapple u or try to take u down. Otherwise u should be able to KO anyone that doesn't have technical prowess.

Reminds me of a story that happened to one of my instructors. He was doing a program at a school one weekend and this big bodybuilder guy kept on harrassing him saying he "couldn't do that sh*t" on him, and that it was all fake and bogus. Finally, he had enough and walked over to the guy and asked him if he wanted to go. The big guy said yeah, so my instructor told him, "ok, here is what's going to happen. I'm going to set my stance, and then I'm going to wake you up when the class is over." Sure enough the big guy took a step and cocked back to punch him and he set his stance and hit him with two palm strikes to the ribs under the pecs and knocked him into the wall and the guy hit his head and was out cold for the rest of the class.

Point of the story, like all other people you fight, you have to have a strategy to win.

Leg after leg kick after leg kick?

In a real fight you dont have five rounds to leg out a strategy.

You better be able to drop any man even he's 300lbs with one low kick.

Otherwise your either not that good or you need to adjust your training for the street.

Every technique should be practiced as hard as possible with the intent of being able to drop an opponent with any technique at any time.

I'm 5'10, 210. I feel I'm fairly big, but there are at least ten guys who lift at my gym that are from 6'0, 230lbs - 6'7 290lbs.

Training or not when your fighting someone that big and that pissed off, its a dangerous fight.

This is the difference between ring fighting and street fighting.

But the best strategy is to unleash a front kick to the groin as hard as possible and follow up with punches or a round kick to the head as your opponent crumples to the ground.

The bigger the muscle, the bigger the charlie horse (or "frog," if you will).

I trained with some guys who loved to throw cutting punches. I'm a 240lb former bodybuilder. I found out the hard way that these strkes are extremely effective on very muscular people. They attack muscle in an unusual manner. I think we all know that the body doesn't accept angles well. If you land a cutting punch to the face you can almost rip their nose off.

Hurting someone with a body shot is all about catching them when they are relaxed. It doesn't matter if he has "rock hard" abs.

Anyone can take a body shot if they see it coming and tighten up their abs before being hit. BUT, if you distract him by hitting up high, he will raise his hands to cover his face and wont be thinking about his abs and thats when you sneak in a body shot that can hurt him. When his stomach muscles are relaxed. It doesn't matter if his abs are developed.

I agree, but relaxed is relative. If you catch a guy breathing in (thus relaxed) anywhere on the body you can hurt him. Hit him in the liver and he drops. Even if he is tightened though people lose sight of the fact that body shots go to the bottom ribs, not the abs. Even if a guy tightens for that, a good shot can hurt him bad, no matter how many crunches he can do.

make fun of their weak areas. most guys don't work their calves enough.

stephen