I was always trained, i think anyway as its been a few years since i boxed, it was always thumb up. The only reason why i could see thumb down and facing you would be that it will score with the knuckles whereas thumb up could easily turn into a more slap type punch especially if its thrown from a bit of distance out. Although, as stated, it could just be down to personal preference.
Thumb up, (no gloves) Within boxing, with gloves - whatever you want. No gloves = thumb up to protect other (than the major two) knuckles.
My boxing is appalling, but the thumb up keeps my elbows in. Exposes the face, (which I tend to protect more via movement and distance anyway), but protects the body. In a school full of kickers, protecting the body is important. It also segways into grappling, groundfighting, and clinchwork better in my experience. Also, it feels more comfortable when doing a long hook, for me. Which doesn't matter now, since I don't even use a long hook anymore. I've been taught that orthodoxy demands thumb in, elbow up for boxing range punches, and thumb up, elbow down for clinch-range bodyshots. I don't personally like it, though.
Interesting how much people vary with this. When boxing I'm mostly thumb up now. In MMA gloves I do like turning the hand right over and throwing with the thumb down/plam facing away from you. It doesn't work with boxing gloves due to the larger surface area but in MMA gloves, or bare fist, it exposes large top knuckles. Fedor, Igor Vochanchain and Rich Franklin are examples of MMA fighters who use this technique, it always surprises me that more don't. I guess it comes from training in boxing gloves so much.
I've just checked out my technique in the mirror and found myself hitting mostly thumb towards my own body. I feel this works for me if I am slipping a jab and hooking with the lead hand over the top of the incoming jab. This is similar to the first picture of Manny Pacquiao in post 14. I am sure that it would be more instinctive to hit thumb up (for me) if I was throwing the hook on entry (as in pic 2). I am sure if you are hitting with the correct part of the hand, so as not to twist the hand or wrist (how much does that hurt by the way) then there is no right or wrong way. If it works then who is to say you cannot do it that way? Was it Rocky Marciano's coach who told him not to keep throwing the overhand corkscrew right hand? When Rocky replied " I am knocking people out with it", his coach said "good point, keep doing it". SuziQ was the tern for his devastating right hand. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=suzieq
I missed this before. Use an uraken mawashi uchi. Fedor calls it his casting punch. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JISgLclfX3c&feature=player_embedded"]How to throw the Fedor Punch AKA Sambo's casting punch - YouTube[/ame]
If you use the forearm (inside sharp bone edge) for your hook punch on the back of your opponent's head, you can integrate your hook punch and head lock as one single move.
Loren Christensen is a fan of that one in his Defensive Tactics books. I like it too, never got to do much with it but it seems very useful.
Snoop, I'm with you. I didn't mention it because it doesn't really seem like a hook to me, but I looove it. Thanks to the casting punch, I never even hook anymore. Almost never jab.
