I had the same thought as you regarding the palm strikes. Seemed like a very odd and inefficient way to throw them, but I haven't had a chance to experiment yet. He is primarily a boxer, so your idea that he doesn't really know how to throw open strikes makes sense.
Perfect example of why excessive movement is never any good. If a person is going to throw a punch then they should throw it with the purpose of connecting. If a person must throw one punch that won't land then he should follow up with a second and third punch that will find it's target.
The applications and techniques are slightly off because he's trying to apply them in the same context as a modern boxer. If you watch MMA fighters you'll actually see some of them use the palm of the hand, the flat part of the fist and the knuckles as one fist. it basically turns the open hand slap into a fist and it allows you to strike harder surfaces without breaking the hand. You'll actually see some MMA fighters throw uppercuts this way when the opponents face is looking downward to the floor. This same position is common with girls in street fights (the slapping fist)
Now you create a problem... So what is the reason? Those guys on the example are not very smart? Or boxing was not so good in the era of John Sullivan?
Just to make clear I have nothing to do with that.
This is an example of people doing modern boxing with out gloves, it is not bare knuckle boxing as discussed in the OP.
Excessive movement is any movement that doesn't serve any purpose or contribute to you winning or striking your opponent. If you throw a punch that was never meant to connect or close the gap then why bother throwing the punch? Gloves have nothing to do with excessive movement.
yeah but that was excessive. If it took that many empty punches to figure out what the other guy is going to do then he needs a better understanding of fighting. If you notice that the big guy in the jeans threw only what was needed. He was a much cleaner fighter. We could literally do a punch count and measure the effectiveness. The guy in the shorts actually did some bobbing and weaving, yet his opponent was able to keep his hand on his head. The 4:40 mark the guy in the shorts throws some over extended punches and I can only assume that he was gassed out from throwing out all of those empty punches. By the 5th minute the guy in the shorts was gassed out and all he had to offer was sloppy punches.
You are right to be skeptical. Grappling was allowed but it depended on the rule set, which was loosely tied to the time period. Under the Broughton era rules and the London Prize Ring rules (LPR), standing grapples, throws, trips, and even chokes were all legal. The Marquess of Queensberry rules put an end to that. The MoQ rules were initially intended for amateur use, not professional, and coexisted with the LPR for a long time. The MoQ rules were also part of a social rebranding. In England, boxing was considered a brutal contest of ruffians and was actually illegal, despite high interest and patronage by the aristocracy. The MoQ "civilized" it by removing grappling, adding timed rounds, limiting the number of rounds, requiring gloves ("mufflers" or "mittens"), further limiting punching techniques and targets, and other things as well.
Well, if you believe the old manuals, the head is one of the primary targets as is the solar plexus, which they called "The Mark." Body blows were also important, of course.
