The Barrier Style is an offensive and defensive boxing stance that is based on the Hitman Style. Ryō Mashiba came up with the style while preparing for his lightweight world title match against Marcus Rosario.

Usage

Just like with the Hitman Style, the stance has the user's body turned, only showing half of his body to his opponent while his arms are crossed in front of his upper body area. The left arm is lowered near the torso in a L-shaped "no-guard" stance, while his right stays near the chest area. The difference between the Barrier Style and the Hitman Style is that the upper body is more squared-up, the right arm is farther from the chest, making it closer to the opponent, and the front leg is sticking out in front, creating a "barrier" between the user and the opponent.

Just like with the Hitman Style, the lowered L-shape left allows the user to attack or defend. Offensively, the lefts come out upwards in an angle that makes it difficult for the opponent to read their trajectory. it's attacks are mainly focused around jabs, counters, and Flicker Jabs. With the Barrier Style, Mashiba's already long right is made longer by having the right hand farther from his chest and closer to the opponent.^[1]

Defensively, with the Barrier Style, the front leg is sticking out in front, creating a "barrier" that makes it hard to push in, and making a takeover harder as well.^[2]

Just like with the Hitman Style, while the stance decreases the user's target area to get hit due to stance only showing half of his body to his opponent, making it hard to close in against and attack, the stance leaves the jaw and temples unguarded.^[3] If the opponent has enough punching power, they can break the L-shaped block by hitting the arm, making the user unable to lift their arm due to the throbbing pain, leaving the user open.^[4] The stance also leaves the left side open. Mashiba once used an Elbow Block to cover his exposed left, however, Ippo Makunouchi managed to break his guard by injuring Mashiba's elbow, sealing off his Hitman Style and Flicker Jab.

References