All fights come with the reach statistic and often you find a fighter with only a 1 or 2 inch reach advantage. Goldberg often goes on to say "fighter A has a 2 inch reach advantage". Some of you may scoff. Some of you may even say "2 inches? That's hardly a reach advantage". But that assertion may not be entirely correct. A couple inches can mean the difference between a bloody lip and a knockout. Finding the "range" doesn't just mean finding the distance at which your fist connects with your opponents face. Range really means finding the distance at which your punches start producing damage.

Everyone that has had arms for any good length of time has a pretty pinpoint idea of how far they can reach. You've had them your whole life, so you'd probably know exactly how far they go. How often do you lean forward to reach something before extending your arm? You know how far your arms go, and compensate accordingly. So if that's the case. Why are fighters finding range? Because they are aiming for penetration.

No, not the kind of penetration that involves lubricant. But the kind of penetration that Bruce Lee talks about when he says "You punch. You envision a point beyond your opponents face. You will punch THROUGH his face and send the head flying backwards."

Not to keep quoting Bruce Lee, but he's right. When a fighter punches, he aims for 2 or 3 inches beyond his opponents face. That distance is where the transfer of force is maximized, and that is all you're doing when you punch. Transferring force from your fist, to your opponents face/head. Tyson is famous for lines like "I want to feel my opponents brain on my glove." He penetrates when he punches. The range that announcers speak of is the range at which you're not simply connecting, but where your punches are transferring the most amount of force.

Think about it this way. Let's take a HW big hitter, Shane Carwin, and imagine him throwing a punch at your face. But that punch connects with your face only when Carwin's arm is completely extended. His knuckles just connect with your jaw at about 1/4 inch in. Think that would hurt much?

Now let's take a punch from a lighter fighter, Frankie Edgar, and have him do the same. Except that his punch connects with your jaw 4 inches before his arm completely extends. Frankie's arm has another 4 inches to go before full extension once it connects with your jaw. How much do you think that one would hurt?

Carwin leaves you with a bloody lip. Frankie leaves you on the floor. That's range. It's the unnatural distance of reaching your objective and going farther. So when a fighter has a 2 inch reach advantage, that 2 inches means extreme force or a glancing blow. It also means that your opponent has to move his head 2 more inches out of the way in order to avoid that blow.

A fighter like Anderson Silva uses ranges exceedingly well. I'm sure most of you have noticed how Anderson's punches never seem to be coming in super fast or super hard. But he lays guys out with them. Why? Because of the penetration. Anderson has very long limbs and when he connects he connects with about 4 to 5 inches left in his extension. That's the money spot. Your arm has extended enough to build up the most amount of energy, but not enough to dissipate the energy before it get's to your opponents face. That's why shorter guys have to "close the distance". They need to get their arms into that money range.

The shorter man has to get inside where his arms are nearly at full extension but his opponents arm is too bent to produce the maximum amount of force. By cutting off the range of the taller opponent. The shorter man "smothers" his punches. He takes the taller man out of range and gets into his own. Smothering your opponents punches takes their arms out of maximum effective range. Mike Tyson was famous for this. He'd frequently be fighting guys that were much taller than him and had a much greater reach advantage. Using his superb head movement and footwork he'd get on the inside where his shorter arms and looping punches were the most deadly but where he'd smother his opponent's punches.

Reach also has the benefit of allowing you to hit without being hit. If a fighter posseses a significant reach advantage of 3 inches or more, it means that at full extension his opponents fist cannot even reach his face. So the 3 inches of penetration he aims for allows him to receive little damage and to deal maximum damage to his opponent.

So next time you look at the reach measurements. Realize their importance and understand what it means for a fighter to have an advantage in that respect. Or what it means to beat a disadvantage in that respect.


2 inches is a big deal. For the male readers, imagine another 2 inches on your favorite member... Not so bad is it?