Title is self-explanatory: what would be the best tactic to effectively punish an otherwise notably inferior opponent with, say 20% more strength and volume, who tries to make his way into close-range with his sheer power to start exchanging blows, other than playing the game he tries to establish or mere retreating, but by holding my ground at least up to a certain extent?
Assume a roughly equal hand reach, and 20% greater speed on my side.
You can't hold your ground against someone who has the physical advantage. The only thing you can do if you really don't want to get out of the way, is to remain on the offensive and catch him with straight punches to the nose. An inexperienced fighter (as you described your opponent) will instinctively go on the defense.
BUUUT, the right tactic is to move around him, out of striking distance and away from his dominant hand. Or try to get him into a corner, strike two or three times, then move away. The idea is to "teach" him that steamroller tactics won't work. Sooner or later he'll get the message and start trying to take you on at the speed game, which you are better at (according to yourself, anyway).
Much easier said than done, of course, but it's possible.
Ideally I'd want to stay on the outside using footwork while peppering with jabs and the occasional straight left. I might use the uppercut to punish them moving into the clinch, but primarily I'd want to rely on angling out rather than winning the dirty boxing fight.
To speak to the mindset behind this kind of question: this theoretical approach is rather useless. Firas Zahabbi said, "I can’t tell you the game plan. I have to spend months training you in the game plan." To take his point generally, a properly trained fighter doesn't sit and think about their strategy. They practice the strategy in the gym against trained, resisting opponents over and over. They don't think, they know exactly what they'd do against a bigger, stronger opponent taking strategy X because they've already done it in the gym.
If you box with these tactics regularly then you'll know exactly what approach you'd like to take. If you don't train, then being told won't help, because you won't be able to execute it.
