drop bear
Sr. Grandmaster
Back to this style over substance idea.Yes, you deal with the punch. Grappling doesn't ignore punches - it just doesn't respond to them with punches.
I've found reasonable success following his strategy, even with partners within the same art. If they come in ready to spar/strike, I want to confound that, and I find attacking their structure with grappling is the quickest way. If they want to grapple, I'd like to keep them away, and strikes are the best way (generically, paired with my movement) to keep them at a distance.
Of course, if I know them and know where their strengths are compared to mine, that can change the equation. One of my partners was also training in Shotokan. If he wanted to grapple, I grappled, because I wasn't going to win a striking contest with him. If one of the purple belts came at me wanting to grapple, I'd grapple, because I knew I had the upper hand there, and they were less likely to slip in a throw/takedown on me than to slip in a punch.
It is something we don't do tactically as our wrestling has strikes in it and our striking has wrestling.
To get a takedown We strike. it is part of that takedown.