Abel vs Balrog (Boxer) - Super Street Fighter 4 Question - sf4answers

I don't main Abel but I fool around with him sometimes, so keep that in mind. 

I would just do Focus Attacks all day. If he comes at you then let go of the focus and if not just keep backdashing. Right after the backdash, throw out a few light kicks which will always stuff his Dash Punches. Just be careful of the Turn Punch (Turnaround Punch, TAP) because it's invulnerability frames on startup, or the overhead Dash Punches. Sometimes your opponent will whiff with a close Buffalo Headbutt and land on other side of you giving you a free throw/punish attempt. 

From what I can tell, Abel's cross over (jumping MK) beats any wakeup option Boxer/Balrog has.  If you time it right, it beats his Buffalo Headbutt (one of the few wakeup options he has, along with a well timed TAP), allowing you to punish him up as he lands (when he whiffs).  If he tries to wake up with an EX Dash Punch then it passes underneath you, forcing a reset of the situation.

To stop his jab spamming, your only option is to block them.  If you can predict the jab spam then do the EX Tornado Throw, which has invulnerability frames.  If he likes to throw, do a regular Tornado Throw which will beat out his regular throw due to it being a command throw.  His tick throws are also very beatable, just press down back, and in a consistent way, hit the throw command once every half-second.  It should stop throws, and since you're pressing it a little late, speed of his jabs will force the block to come out first and you'll be safe. 

After two punches, Balrog should be far enough so that he would have to walk forward and and then start spamming crouching light kick which is an opportunity to nail him with a 4-5 hit combo everytime.  You can stop those light kick combos with either a Cross Over and /or a LP Tornado Throw.  You should condition him to think you will stop those light punches and go for a Tornado Throw and then just keep crossing over and light kicking; after 3-4 combos you'll stun him and hit him with something really nasty. 

Be careful when Balrog has his Ultra meter filled and has the Violent Buffalo (Ultra 1) selected as his Ultra; every Balrog player will try to combo you into the Ultra from a successful hit of the Buffalo Headbutt, especially towards the end of the match.

Always.

Without fail.

But really, what else can they do? 

Look for patterns, after certain trades certain Balrog players will always rush you with a Dash Punch; if they become predictable then remember it and punish them with a preemptive EX Tornado Throw (again, the invulnerability frames help).  Successfully landing one or two of those usually stops them from throwing them out as much. 

Keep mobile.  Use a lot of Marseilles Rolls and jumps. If you're far away, a MK Marseilles Roll into a cross over jump MK usually gets you in fairly easy and allows you to mix him up with many different things.

Since most Balrog players are very good at maintaining charge, but do it using down-back (crouching) make sure to use the Wheel Kick as part of your mixup game, they hit hard and are pretty fast.  Your opponent may catch on to that so bait them with some LK Wheel Kick from afar and miss on purpose; if the opponent reads you wrong and uses the Buffalo Headbutt on reaction, then punish when he mises.  Since the recovery of the Buffalo Headbutt is so fast so I would opt for using a Tornado Throw to punish in that situation, as trying to land something big in that situation usually isn't fast enough and a regular throw just doesn't punish enough. 

Finally, while Balrog's sweeps are really great they don't deal a lot of damage.  Don't get discouraged if you get hit by a few.  Even if you get swept by a cr.HK after 4 LP, don't be discouraged, damage scaling reduces the amount the sweep does after that many hits.

I feel like most of the time Abel can really do some really solid damage and can be aggressive enough to try different things.  Because of this, you need to be aggressive with Abel, a rush-down style is typically preferred, as a defensive Abel doesn't have much potential.

Sure, thanks a bunch for those answers. You hit the nail on the head with that last point, I do become too defensive in that matchup for some weird reason.