It's disappointing that the Thing is no longer one of the major stars of Marvel as he once was.  Unfortunately some of that is due to the era of JB's work.  The cancellation of Marvel Two In One removed much of Ben's involvement with the Marvel Universe, and his departure from FF removed him from most people's awareness.  Then the character was aimless for far too long.  These several decisions kind of compounded on one another.

The Thing always had gumption.  Ben simply didn't show any fear (or at least, he never let fear stop him) and always took on the Hulk when needed.  The only other person who did that was Thor.  That was always his edge in fights against the Hulk, the Thing would stay in the fight long enough that he might get lucky.

Another aspect of the Thing-Hulk fight is that when not enraged, the Hulk is not the strongest one there is.  People keep forgetting this.  The Abomination was always stronger than the Hulk when not angered.  The Thing should be too.  That means if he can end the fight quick enough, the Hulk can go down.

As for fighting styles, the Thing would do better at wrestling than martial arts (and incidentally, the Thing does know how to wrestle quite well).  Chokes and holds could exhaust the Hulk.  We know lots of times when the Hulk gets tired and passes out.  The Thing only needs position, and he can beat the Hulk.  But not in a boxing match.

Exactly John.

What I'm talking about would be a "hard" style, in tune with Sumo. Bruce Lee talking about JKD as "no-style", so Ben learning internal breathing and the like doesn't suddenly turn him into Jet Li.

Ben could learn breathing methods that would increase his punching power substantially. He doesn't have to slug it out with the Hulk, he has to HIT the Hulk with force enough to knock him out before his EDIT Hulk's strength increase begins.

If Ben has always had trouble getting to the Hulk that fast, he could learn how to hit far harder than he does.

He doesn't have to slug it out with the Hulk, he has to HIT the Hulk with force enough to knock him out before Hulk's strength increase begins.

Yes, but when does Ben ever encounter the Hulk in this early stage? Usually if the two meet, it's bc the Hulk is already on some kind of rampage and thus, already angered. If the Hulk isn't angry yet, then it's likely that Ben wouldn't need to fight him.

Regardless, Ben is not the type of character to learn breathing methods, etc. He's currently skilled (and strong) enough for 95% of his fights. The rest...well, those would be opponents so powerful that extra fighting skills aren't going to matter. Again, the Hulk takes on ALL the Avengers...we shouldn't expect Ben to be able to take him on one on one successfully.