Let’s face reality. Size really does matter – but it’s not everything. You may not be bigger than your opponent, but you may be faster, smarter, or more savvy than him. Take advantage wherever you can. Brains are much more important than brute strength.

Unlike facing an adversary who’s equal in size, fighting a bigger person has certain challenges, and following these steps make help you emerge victorious – or at least survive in one piece!

1. Size up your chances honestly. Only engage in fighting bigger people if you have no options left. Avoid a confrontation if possible. Because of his size, you’re at a disadvantage.
2. Choose the wisest option. There are two choices when faced with a larger, potentially stronger opponent: either face your adversary and fight or run. Choosing to retreat is not a sign of cowardice, but a decision to survive and spare yourself. It is foolish to fight while lacking confidence, or when you know you cannot win.
3. Use the element of surprise. If you’re cornered and the situation leaves you no choice, prepare yourself mentally and physically without being too obvious. Pretend that you’re unprepared, then surprise him by throwing a punch in the solar plexus (the soft tissue between the middle portion of the chest and the abdominal muscles). This will more than likely wind him.
4. Prepare Plan B. If you’re unsuccessful in winding him with your surprise attack (the sucker punch), prepare yourself with your fighting stance and follow the rules below.
   • Always guard your head with your forearms; a bigger guy could easily land a blow to your head because of his reach advantage.
   • Respect your opponent’s longer reach and power due to his mass and length. Keep a safe distance. To penetrate the inside range and get a punch in, use the proper timing to parry (blocking and diverting your opponent’s strike) or slip his blow while shifting your feet forward (to compensate for your disadvantage in reach) finding an opening, and projecting the punch. (Dodge and weave so his punch misses and unbalances him) This is a relatively risky maneuver, but effective if properly executed.
   • To neutralize your taller opponent’s reach: When he throws his straight punch, (head movement by ducking is essential), have the proper timing to throw a hook (this will serve as a parry) to his forearm, and follow up with a combination of strikes to the body or to the head by getting in close. The main objective is to cripple and disable his forearm to discourage his attack.
   • It is more efficient to parry (a simple tap against a forceful blow is enough to divert the strike) than to block the attack. Parrying gives you more opportunity to counter-attack, while blocking a blow can physically drain you and cause you damage. But without proper timing, effective parrying is impossible.
   • Never fight fairly if you’re at a disadvantage because of his size. The main idea is to use your common sense and practicality, and to protect yourself at all costs. This isn’t about competition, nor about showing off. This is about realistically defending yourself. In a street fight, there are no rules. If you have something in your hand, like a pen, bottle, or rock, turn it into a defensive tool. Throw a handful of sand in his eyes or slit his legs with a cutter. Blinding him with hot sauce or chili powder is a clever way to temporarily incapacitate your foe, and will give you the opportunity to land a combination of strikes, or escape. When possible, do not engage in a street fight empty handed. Unlike in combat sports, nothing is fair in a real fight. Besides, if he sees you holding something that could be a threat to him it may make him more likely to back off, and could possibly make him hesitant to attack you. That would be a good thing.
   • Knowledge of handling a martial arts weapon (e.g. kali sticks, nunchaku, staff, or shinai sword) is essential. Never expect a 5’1, 95 lbs. small guy to beat up a 6’5, 200 lbs. big guy with his bare fists. Although possible if the smaller individual has superior speed and skill, it happens very rarely. The most realistic way to beat the bigger foe will most often depend upon the small guy’s expertise in handling a weapon, and/or his willingness to retreat rather than just blindly attacking. A weapon is a great ‘equalizer’.
   • Close-range fighting is advisable for smaller fighters. Proper timing is the key, because taller fighters prefer to fight the outside range. This makes sense because of their longer reach.
   • Play dirty. Kick his groin, finger-jab his eyes, throw a chopping blow to his throat, bite his [ear (like Iron Mike against a bigger Holyfield, which was totally uncool in the ring, but may save you in a real brawl). A hair grab is a very effective and practical move, leaving him with less mobility. Pulling his hair in a downward direction may give you the opportunity to throw an uppercut or knee strike to the face. Application of tactics which are labeled as foul and “below the belt” in combat sports is as normal and advisable as breathing in a street fight.
   • There are four ways to break the hold and escape when being grabbed by a bigger man. Deliver a headbutt to the face, bite the skin (the Masseter muscle, the muscle for biting, attached and located in the jaw area, is the strongest muscle in the human body. However, be aware that biting the skin endangers you because your adversary’s blood may be infected with HIV or other contagious viral diseases). Stomping the toes can discontinue a bear hug. Or you can simply twist and break your foe’s finger joints to break his hold.
   • Use a heavy bag in your training routine to help you develop more power. Power, speed, stamina and skill are attainable attributes. Hard work and training are the best ways to achieve these attributes.
   • Stick and move, hit and run. As Ali said, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”. Move forward, move backward, sidestep, move in a circular path. Footwork is a very essential factor combined with the ability to hit with perfect timing. Never be in a flat-footed stationary fighting stance, a bigger opponent can easily own you if you let him catch you.
   • Slipping, bobbing and weaving before a snappy strike is a very essential and effective skill to develop. Being the smaller guy, you’re more likely faster than him. Take advantage of your lightness and know the fundamentals of evasive fighting. Bruce Lee (Chinese name: Li Xiao’long- “Li, the little dragon”) said that “evasivefighting is to hit without getting hit.” You, as a smaller adversary against a bigger foe, should identify with a bullfighter’s evasiveness and swiftness against the bull’s powerful rage.
   • Side-stepping and finding unusual awkward angles is also a good way to intercept the larger opponent’s inside range. Avoiding being in front of your adversary gives you an opportunity to seek for an opening and makes you less predictable. However, it takes a lot of training and practice to acquire this skill.
   • To fight toe to toe with a bigger foe is way too risky. Evasiveness is the one of the most important attributes. Run if you get an opportunity.
   • Capitalize on your speed, lightness and quickness. Volume punching (accumulation factor) favors small fighters. Training with a speed bag is an excellent training tool to develop your speed and rapid striking.
   • Diminutive Manny Pacquiao Pacman, after beating a taller and bigger “Golden Boy”, Oscar De La Hoya, said: “Speed is the key to beat him”.
   • Speed doesn’t only refer to the rapidity and quickness of the strike but the quickness of the footwork. Possessing the ability to glide inside and outside the fighting range with ease.
   • Study the art of counter-striking. Strike before your adversary strikes, as you tend to stop his attack or strike after you’ve slipped his strike.
   • Practice combinations of blows to confuse your opponent. Don’t throw the same attack more than a couple of times in a row.
   • Feint. Throw a fake strike followed up by a real strike. Throw a fake left punch to the head then strike him with a real right punch in the solar plexus. Experiment with combination of strikes. The purpose of faking strikes is to distract the attention of the opponent, to deceive and divert his coordination, focus, timing, and concentration. Bruce Lee said, “When two fighters with equal skills spar, the one who has the more superior feinting skills wins.”
   • When you’re on the outside range, never punch for the face unless you’re confident enough to knock him out. You can easily be countered because of his reach advantage. It will only make him angrier if you’re unsuccessful knocking him out. Because of your disadvantage in reach, it is unwise to do so. Instead, use long range attacks like the sidekick, hitting the nearest target, which is the knee or the groin. Only hit him in the face if he is in crippling pain and stunned. Head shots must only be thrown if you’ve closed in.
   • Do not hit the hard tissues of the body, only aim at his vulnerable areas like the knees, groin, eyes, bridge of the nose, kidney, heart, neck, throat, and the solar plexus. These are the pain sensitive areas of the body.
   • No matter how big a person is, a solid kick to the crotch will inflict a crippling pain. Even world-class heavily muscular boxers will collapse in pain if accidentally or perhaps deliberately struck in the groin with enough force. You can call it dirty, but it is practical and effective. A solid uppercut (you can apply this as a sucker punch) to the groin is one of the best weapons a small man can deliver against a bigger opponent. Practice delivering the uppercut with a heavy bag to develop a powerful groin shot.
   • Have the proper timing to close in. When you’re in the inside range, use striking techniques designed for short range, a headbutt to the face, a hook to the jaw, knee strikes to the groin and elbow strikes to the solar plexus are very effective.
   • How many times have you seen a boxer cut due to a headbutt in a boxing match? A headbutt can easily cut and bleed a face. Use it when the opportunity strikes and you’ve closed in.
   • A hair grab, pulling the head in a downward direction followed by a karate chop to the the nape area is a life threatening move. This is an extremely damaging blow which can cause instant death or permanent lifelong paralysis due to the injury it could inflict to highest level of the spinal cord. Never, ever execute this unless you’re in a life threatening situation.
   • Hitting the temple with the “knife edge” area of your knuckle can daze and distract your bigger foe’s coordination. Hitting him there with a weapon can kill him, so use care and attack only if you are fearful for your life or another’s.
   • Striking the ears can unbalance your opponent and knock him unconscious. The ears are the center of our equilibrium (balance).
   • Learn the art of ground fighting. On the ground, survival depends on one’s ability to use leverage to pin and subdue an opponent, or the knowledge of attacks one can to damage the opponent’s joints. Finger-breaking, hitting the eyes, and jabbing the throat and groin are some techniques one can use to survive a ground fight. Many stress the use of Jujitsu techniques, and while the use of arm and leg techniques are effective, do not forget that a twisted finger can end an opponent’s hold on you. On the ground, what matters most is the refinement of skills and techniques in grappling rather than one’s size.
   • The “clinch and strike” strategy (a la Ricky the ‘Hitman’ Hatton) is designed for smaller fighters. By closing the gap and space (by clinching), the bigger opponent will be unable to throw their longer arm, while you are using your advantage by striking on the inside range, throwing short powerful blows.
5. Remember your advantages. You do have some:
   • • Smaller people tend to be lighter and more slender, which is essential for evasive defensive fighting. Most of them have excellent footwork. Agility is also an asset a small person possess.
     • They are also quicker which will complement for rapid throwing of strikes. Although they have less power for striking, they can compensate by throwing strikes quicker and more often.
     • They tend to have greater stamina than their bigger foes.
     • They’re in an excellent position to throw a devastating uppercut with greater leverage to the kidney, solar plexus, and the jaw of their taller adversary.
     • When ground fighting, they are harder to take down or tackle compared to taller foes because they’re nearer to their center of gravity.
     • Although a shorter arm reach is a disadvantage when throwing a strike on long ranged outside fighting, it can be an advantage during closed ranged in-fighting. A shorter arm can facilitate greater power and leverage (especially throwing short hooks and short uppercuts) at this range than a longer arm could.
     • Psychologically, smaller fighters tend to have greater motivational drive and hunger to excel because they’re up to a greater sense of challenge facing a bigger adversary. Meanwhile, bigger fighters tend to underestimate their smaller foes, which may lead to overconfidence and taking their training for granted.
     • Tips

• A study sparring against a taller, bigger opponent is an essential part of training for modifying and figuring out skills and technique.
• Always keep in mind that size really does matter. A bigger opponent can inflict much damage because of heavier, stronger blows. But having a strategy and brains is much more important. There is an old boxing adage that “a good big man will always beat a good little man “. Be that the case, if you’re the smaller one, you should not only be good as he is, but be better. If he is bigger than you, you must be wiser than he. The main prerequisite is to be sure that you can surpass his skills and possess better fighting techniques. Having skills equal with his is not enough, because he has the edge and advantage.
• You must have the proper range adjustment against a taller opponent. It’s a matter of closing-in or getting out the distance. It’s either be farther, beyond his reaching range or get inside. Taking advantage of your shorter range and to lessen, neutralizing his leverage by closing the gap. Never be on his reaching range.
• A heavyweight championship boxer of the earlier part of 20th century named Sam Langford popularized the adage, “Kill the body and the head will fall”. He only stood 5’7″, but defeated almost every larger person who challenged him. Body striking is very important to remember in fighting. It favors smaller fighters because they’re more likely leveled on the body area of their bigger foe. You can strike the head as a follow up if you’ve thrown a solid straight punch or uppercut to the solar plexus or kidney area.
• In practical self-defense, Bruce Lee always emphasized that the starting line of defense is a sidekick to the knee. Kicking or stomping the knee is very effective because it is one of the most immobile and dislocatable parts of the body while the longest defensive move is a sidekick. Hitting the knee doesn’t require long reach and it is one of the nearest and the most vulnerable targets. However, you need to develop your kicking power to inflict enough damage to be of help.
• Rely heavily on kicking strikes (especially when a bigger foe only knows how to throw a punch and doesn’t kick), because the leg is longer than the arms. This will help to compensate for your disadvantage in reach. Punching is secondary; this will be applied in the mid-range or you’ve closed in.
• Muay Thai fighters (kickboxers in Thailand) train themselves to develop a devastating shin kick. Practicing striking on a heavy bag is the best form of training to develop powerful shin strikes.
• The solar plexus is a vital target. A smaller person’s uppercut towards it will cause an opponent to experience excruciating pain, and possibly death. Because of the upward direction of the blow, the visceral sensitivity to pain will cause a very great damage and shock. When it is injured, it delivers a painful signal to the brain which causes partial paralysis, shortness of breath and unbearable pain.
• An overhead punch is a strike with a circular path coming from above-level of the head sinking on a downward direction towards the target which is the opponent’s head. It is a very tricky counter-attack and intended to throw on the “blind side/spot” of the bigger adversary.
• There is no shame in living to fight another day. The saying, “Discretion is the better part of valor” means there are some things even the brave don’t talk about – running away isn’t something to brag about, but it is sometimes the only way to have a successful outcome in a brawl.
• It is important to keep your eyes on your opponent. If you are trying to do a spin kick, do it quickly so he won’t be able to act before you act.
• Scream. A loud, high-pitched and unexpected scream can not only daze your foe but also alert others that you’re in trouble and bring them to your aid.

• Never discard escape as one of your best options, especially when you don’t have the sufficient knowledge and training to deal with a larger adversary. If you can’t outbox him, at least outrun him.
• Turn something into a defensive weapon (like a pen, bottle, or rock) but not to the extent that you’ll kill him, just cripple and immobilize (unless your life is in grave danger).
• At least learn and study the basics of a martial art self-defense you prefer. It is better to deal with an adversary using scientific knowledge defending yourself than mindlessly brawling with them.
• The purpose of this article is to give you emphasis on what we should do if we might encounter belligerent people way beyond our size. The intention is to educate and prepare us for self-defense especially in a deadly situation, not to encourage nor sensationalize violence. Having an open mind will lead you to a broader sense and a deeper meaning about this article. This page is only intended for worst case scenarios.
• Grappling is extremely effective against one opponent, but is useless against multiple attackers. You need to learn when to and not to apply those grappling techniques.
• This article is essential to every fighter, no matter how tall or big you are. There will always be a taller and bigger fighter than you, so you should a have sufficient knowledge and the know-how to handle the situation if ever you encounter one.