Dash Straight
Balrog's matchups are heavily defined by who can and can't crouch under [4]6P Dash Straight.
Characters who can't crouch under Dash Straight:
- Raiden
- Geese
- Chang
- Zangief
- Sagat
- Eagle
- Rugal
- Yamazaki
- Benimaru
- E.Honda
- Dhalsim
- Terry
- Kyo
- Joe
Characters who can crouch under Dash Straight:
- Guile
- Boxer
- Blanka
- Dictator
- Kyosuke
- Todo
- Ryo
- Ryu
- Ken
- Akuma
- Dan
- Rolento
- Haohmaru
- Claw
- Cammy
- Morrigan
- Yun
- Chun-Li
- Sakura
- Mai
- Kim
- Vice
- Yuri
- Nakoruru
- Rock
- Hibiki
- Maki
- Iori
- Athena
Matchups
Capcom Characters
Akuma
Balrog (Boxer)
Boxer funnily enough can duck his own dash punch, so mirror matches will be pretty interesting.
Vs. C-Boxer
If it's C vs C, play with carefulness, Boxer has pretty okay movement but his roll can be pretty dangerous. Since it's very fast it can catch one off guard. However, a quick dash punch kills it pretty easily on reaction. Since Boxer can duck his own dash punch, you have to use st.HP. However, you can still use dash punch as a counterpoke vs. an st.HP or cr.HK.
If it's K vs C, try to close in space slowly with shorthop pressure. Opening up with shorthops is a good strategy since Boxer has great shorthop attacks. When you have a level 3, it's a lot easier to put in strike/throw mix because C-Boxer will try to play super defensively, for good reason. Always at least try to have some charge for Gigaton Blow, as the opponent is almost definitely trying to keep track of your charge so they know when to poke. Also try to JD a lot, Boxer's best buttons and pokes become super unsafe on JD and will be punished.
Vs. K-Boxer
If it's C vs K, then simply play a little defensive. On JD, dash punch becomes very unsafe, so don't stick it out as a counterpoke nearly as much. When K-Boxer has a level 3, defensive play is almost required to live. The threat of a Gigaton Blow is so large that you have to respect it in almost any context. The fact that it can basically blow up anything is crazy. Don't stick out anything big predictably, your best pokes are very bad vs JDs.
If it's K vs K, then really just have more firepower and offensive presence than the opponent. After all, K vs. K is gonna have a lot of moments where round momentum is shifted thanks to rage. You just need to be a bigger hitter, especially when you have a chance at a lvl.3. Make sure to JD the opposing Boxer's buttons, but don't get predictable with poking yourself or you'll face the same punishment.
Blanka
Cammy
One of Boxer's worst matchups. Cammy not only ducks dash punch, but also ducks Boxer's replacement, st.HP. Cammy still has access to all of her tools vs. Boxer, so this is gonna be a VERY rough one.
You can still use Dash Punch vs. Cammy, it's just really easy to take a lot of damage from it. When Cammy does that thing where she walks back and forth and calls it "neutral" you can use it. Chances are she's gonna either get socked in the face or blocks it. It's at worst -3, and even then you're probably just gonna use the LP version in this matchup, which is only -1 and can be spaced. Pressuring Cammy is hard though. She's gonna hold down-back most likely and that means no dash punch. Strike/Throw kinda sucks against Cammy when she has a 3f fierce and some good anti-pressure tools. However that's all you really have vs. Cammy so try to keep your turn going as long as possible. Cammy's jump is pretty bad so you should be able to AA it no problem, but her walk speed gives her really potent offense.
Boxer only really becomes a threat vs. Cammy with meter. Once he has a lvl.2 super or a Gigaton Blow ready, you can blow up anything she tries besides her +10 fierces. Her st.HK is -8, though, so you can easily punish that with Gigaton on block or hit even. It's also a really good reversal or anti-pressure tool. When Cammy is walking up at you to push that cl.HP vs. throw mix, you can do Gigaton and unless she was actually blocking at the super freeze, she's eating that all the way.
Overall this matchup sucks. Cammy beats you in neutral easily and it's really hard to maintain pressure and even harder to escape pressure. You have to have meter to pose a threat and even then it has to be a level 3 in order for Cammy to really respect you. Just try your best here I guess.
Chun-Li
Dan
Dhalsim
Eagle
E. Honda
Guile
Ken
Kyosuke
M. Bison (Dictator)
Maki
Morrigan
Rolento
Ryu
Sagat
Honestly, not that bad of a matchup. Sagat is the best character in the game but it's the easiest matchup Boxer has among the SS+ tiers of the game. Not saying that Boxer beats Sagat on average but for a top tier vs mid tier matchup, Boxer can definitely put in work.
The sole reason why Boxer can play vs. Sagat is because he has access to dash punch in any context or situation. Boxer can counterpoke around with LP Dash Punch and out prioritize Sagat's quicker pokes. Sagat will most likely try to throw out quick pokes preemptively to stuff out dash punch (cr.LK, st.LK, st.LP) or even try to throw out big pokes if he's certain you will do it (cr.HP, st.HP). Dash Punch can be used for either whiff punishing/counter poking or just getting in when Sagat takes a defensive position. If you frustrate the Sagat player enough he might start to do some BIG moves to stuff it out (Tiger Uppercut). You don't need me to tell you that shit ain't safe.
You might also see Sagat throw out Tiger Shots to try to stop you, but every groove has an option to completely nullify that. If you're in C/A/N you can just do RC Dash Punch to punish Sagat, or roll if you don't have charge, if you're in S you can dodge it and dodge cancel to dash punch, if you're in P/K you can parry/JD for free meter. Funnily enough outside of just doing a big super Tiger Shots are probably the best way of stopping dash punch, but because the subsystems inherently nullify fireballs, it's gonna get blown up one way or another.
In terms of neutral, do not try to play neutral with Sagat, rather try to react to what Sagat does with Dash Punches and whatnot. If you try to play neutral with Sagat, I'm telling you now you're gonna lose, since Sagat's buttons are astronomically better. RC Dash Punch is extremely good, but vulnerable to roll and dodge, parries and JDs. Use Dash Punch as a form of counterpoking and starting out pressure. Trying to contest Sagat's buttons usually doesn't end well for most of the cast but especiall Boxer.
LP Dash Punch is -1 and travels pretty far, so you can use it to start pressure. Since it's just -1, you can follow up with cr.LP, a 3f normal, and it basically counterhits or trades with any Sagat normal. Following up with cr.MP is really good as well, since it has high priority and can combo into Dash Ground for a quick knockdown.
Once you have Sagat cornered, sit at a range where his st.LP and cr.LK whiff so he has no way to mash out of strings. At that range, you can also push another dash punch, and you can easily react to a roll. In that situation you can get a lot of damage out of either withering away guard bar and getting a punish from that, or by sitting Sagat in the corner with anti-airs and throws.
When you have a level 3, now Sagat actually has to respect you if he didn't respect dash punch already. If you see a poke, or if you see anything that just isn't blocking, let that bitch rip. If Sagat is doing his signature "464646464646" thing in neutral, sit him down with that too. That's where you can REALLY kill Sagat. Imagine hitting Sagat with a bunch of dash punches as little knife wounds, but hitting him with a level 3 is like shooting him with a bazooka. It's the make-or-break deal in this matchup.
When being pressured, you also have a really good way of escaping pressure, and you probably can guess what it is. Yea, Dash Punch may be -1, but you are close to Sagat, you do have quicker buttons overall than him, I think it's still a great tool to escape any up close scenario and taking back a turn. In terms of defensive tools, Boxer also has decent AAs, so you can pretty easily beat Sagat jumps.
Overall I think this matchup is pretty even for Boxer, with some slight advantage to Sagat just because of how much better he is overall. Among the top tiers, this is Boxer's easiest matchup.
Sakura
Vega (Claw)
Yun
Zangief
A weird matchup. Gief is a very, VERY big dude. This means he can't duck dash punch. If you can give Sagat problems because he's fat, then Gief should be no different right? Not exactly.
Though Boxer beats Gief clean in neutral from dash punch alone, you can't just do dash punch up close willy-nilly. Why? Frame 0 SPD. If you don't space dash punch, reversal SPD will punish. Now, it is pretty hard to reversal SPD, but even if it's not a reversal, you have to jump as soon as you're done otherwise he's still grabbing you, and at that point it's a free AA. SPD does give Gief a shitty knockdown and basically no additional pressure afterwards so it MIGHT be okay to eat one or two here or there but it can't be a regular thing.
Spacing dash punch is honestly not THAT hard but you still have to do it. You can't just be throwing it out like you can vs other chars that can't duck it. In neutral it's easy to space dash punch and that's honestly where Boxer is strongest in this MU. It's very easy to just SPD whatever Boxer tries so playing defensive/neutral is best.
Boxer can AA Gief's stuff, if he's in K and does a low jump he can do a Buffalo Headbutt from a little closer up or st.HP / Dash Punch from farther away. If Gief does a longer jump Dash Upper works. Gief's roll is also very slow, so it's easy to punish, however, using Dash Punch as a roll punish won't be so good, as I've already described. You have to use Dash Ground Straight instead, at least it guarantees a knockdown.
In my opinion Boxer still beats Gief but it's not because dash punch destroys him. You have to still be very careful to avoid getting grabbed to death.
SNK Characters
Athena
Benimaru
Chang
Geese
Haohmaru
Hibiki
Iori
Joe
Kim
King
Kyo
Mai
Nakoruru
Raiden
Rock
Rugal
Ryo
Todo
Yamazaki
Fairly even, Yamazaki does have a lot of tools to deal with Dash Punch but he also can't crouch it either, so most of his attempted punishes are reads. Serpent Slash can be whiff punished on reaction, Sand Kick can at least give Boxer free space, and if Yamazaki jumps, don't try to jump with him. His air normals are way better than Boxers. Your best tool is either Dash Upper or cr.HP for anti-airs. Better yet just don't try to jump in general, the only instance where you can jump is when Yamazaki whiffs his HP Serpent Slash, which goes straight down and has no chance of hitting you in the air, it's actually preferred that you do something like a super jump in that situation, since you can pick up a punish if you reacted quickly enough, but Yamazaki's anti airs are simply too good for you to try and get offense in via jumping. Shorthop HP or HK can still be useful though, just don't overdo it since Yamazaki has great anti-airs for close opponents as well.
You can poke pretty decently against Yamazaki especially with RCs, as his st.HK won't stop an RC Dash Punch. In grooves where there is no RC, you have to be a little more selective on when you can use Dash Punch. Yamazaki's buttons are quick and have good priority. He can stop Dash Punch with st.LK, st.HK, cr.HK, cr.MK, the list goes on. You have to do it when Yamazaki isn't currently pressing anything. LP Dash Punch should beat st.HK in terms of startup, but other normals can still outpace it.
Once you get in, Yamazaki has good defensive tools, but Dash Punch can still keep the pressure going, so make sure to use it when Yamazaki isn't trying to do anything, like pressing cr.MK or mash cr.LP. Just watch out for when he tries to do his anti-air super as a desperation attempt. It's a very easy punish when you block it, optimally you do st.MP into Dash Ground Straight for a good close knockdown, but if you somehow don't have charge doing Boxer's kick throw basically replicates the knockdown but leaves some damage off the table.
Since Yamazaki's fattyness allows Dash Punch to be used in this matchup, it makes it pretty okay for Boxer, although he is slightly disadvantaged just because Yamazaki has a far better overall toolkit. Still though, you can win this MU handily with the right approach and good pressure.
Terry
Vice
Yuri
