Just as punching to the face, Im sure he could adjust his punching slightly and face punch me, BUT how would he go defending a punch to the face as his sparring revolves around not having to worry about that happening.
WTF fighters get punched in the fast, with the bare fist, all the time. It happens during training, and it happens in during sparring. Again, even thought it is against the rules, it is bound to happen both accidentally, and intentionally. Example, in 2009 at the Korea Open, where many of the most elite WTF Olympic team members and national team members compete, I was USA team leader, standing ringside watching Canada fight Iran. That match would determine who USA fought in the final match. During the fight, Canada punches Iran in the face, knocking him out cold. Iran was taken to the hospital, Canada was disqualified, USA won the gold. That was one of dozens of face punching incidents that occurred at that event over several days. Almost all fighters were able to successfully roll with the punches and continue to fight without serious injury. Why? Because they experience it all the time, in their training, and in the ring, and they move well to be prepared to deflect and roll with such surprise attacks.
This is an example of never experiencing a training method and making guesses, like the one that WTF fighters never have to worry about getting kicked below the belt. But I guess that it is laughable and self righteous of me to point that out.
What if someone ran in an rugby tackled him to the ground? again , he doesnt have to worry about that happening in the ruleset with which he spars.
These scenarios can go anywhere. I hope you realize that the WTF fighters don't just stand there, they move all around, and in response to anything aggressive, and they can kick just as hard WHILE moving backward and sideways as in place and forward, are are extremely accurate in delivering knockout power. So what if the WTF fighter has good timing and when the rugby guy charges with his head down the WTF kicks his teeth out? Again, these scenarios can go anywhere, the best thing is to get experience at it.
From my experience, attacking comes quite naturally, its defending that takes time to master and its even more difficult to master defending something that you never have to practice defending in real time against a resisting opponent.
Do you feel that someone who does not understand the training methods and evolution of learning needed to apply the intricacies of "entire body and head movement at point of impact of full contact strikes" somehow magically understands what it takes to master defensive movement?
I suppose also, that Im little biased when it comes to the manny paquiao analogy because I believe puching transfers better to a real life situation, so I believe a good boxer is probably more equiped for the 'street' than a good kicker. As my instructor always says "you can be the best kicker in the world but if you cant punch you're screwed".
I guess he would know that to be true, if he had defeated the best kicker in the world. That being said, I think that the mass majority of persons will need to depend on their hands as a primary physical self defense tool in a real fight/self defense situation. And for most of the population, that hand weapon would be the palm, since even trained people tend to punch wrong with their bare hand. All other hand an leg technique are most likely going to be secondary.
An elite fighter, of any type, is going to use what they do best, and that can be deadly for their opponent, whether it be a kick, punch, body slam, choke, etc. Even guys who get into lots of street fights, they develop certain things that have worked well for them over the years, and some can get pretty good at it, and it's not defense oriented, these guys usually have the attitude "I can take it", because most of their opponents were not trained well and usually did not harm them to bad, so they never worry about rolling with the punches, so to speak, like an elite fighter would, so they never develop a real defense. To them, a good offense is the best defense.
