The all things technical thread.

Harold Johnson
Jersey Joe Walcott
Marlon Starling
Wilfred Benitez
Archie Moore
Roberto Duran is the best offensive counter puncher i've ever seen. He was offensive and defensive at the same time. Mixed the two so well.

 

Cheers for sharing, Mand. :thumbsup

I rate Jimmy highly. Interesting bit about Nige there. I always thought Benn's defense in terms of his head movement and bob and weave was slightly underrated. Jimmy had a lot to with that.

 

Some fighters train for far too long for a fight. No doubt about it. What happens is you can go past your peak in that period then you're left with not much in the tank come fight night. Most of that is because they're not fighting enough so they end up training way longer then they should for two dates a year.

 

Footwork.

I have a foot fetish in boxing. I really love to watch fighters with good feet. I've seen fighters lose and win purely on their feet.

Footwork is a requirement in all level of boxing. Just like with anything else in boxing it has to be educated to be effective. Some fighters just move around without knowing why they're doing so. Good footwork is needed in all areas of the game. It's needed by the attacking pressure fighters as well as the defensive fighters. With good footwork you can cut the ring, change the distance, get yourself out of bad situations, control the pace of the fight etc. It's basically your base and root foundation to get your game started and get your rhythm going.

The objective should be to not just run as eventually you'll be found. But for defense to get out of range and for offense to get into range with them. Just moving around the ring without purpose and giving off a running impression will not do anything for you. You will waste a lot of motion and not impress the judges either. You'll also trap yourself in pressure spots in the ring. If you're an aggressive fighter with bad footwork it can mean the difference between stopping and getting to your opponent and getting outpointed as we saw with Khan/Maidana where Marcos Maidana was letting Khan survive mainly due to his poor feet and Khan was letting Maidana get to him with his poor feet. That fight was an illustration of everything not to do for either style with their feet. Khan wasn't circling effectively and Maidana wasn't cutting across properly. It was a smorgasbord of mistakes with the feet.

There's two types styles of footwork employed by fighters. One is the simple getting in and then out that most amatuer boxers use. This way of fighting with your feet requires in most cases that you use your feet for your first line of defense. I'm not a fan of it because you can't rely exclusively on your feet to avoid punches.

The other style of footwork and it's the more skilled way of using the feet is to not just go in and out in one direction but to move round your opponent in a tight circle when you punch AND when you're defending against an attack. It gives you many more angles for attack and openings. This requires a lot of skill and refinement because you can easily circle into a punch. You'll see fighters trying to circle in tight spots but end up just being smoke and mirrors and eventually circling into a punch. Boxing in tight circles you need a good dose of reflexes and timing as you're normally in close or in the pocket and you have to master how to pivot.

Watch how Zab Judah (the ultimate smoke and mirrors fighter) circles and dips into the power hand with poor footwork.

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One of the best guys to watch for in how to use educated feet is Miguel Canto. I loved the way he just glided on the top of canvas and befuddled his opponents with good footwork. So smooth and not much wasted motion. It basically made him the fighter that he was as he didn't have a lot to keep opponents honest, he had to master the science of footwork.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONz2bSQd1fQ&feature=related[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPeORmLXpl8[/ame]


Watch how Oscar De La Hoya outboxes Trinidad and gains the advantage with his footwork. Excuse the pathetic music. Oscar gave a masterclass in footwork in that fight. In and out of range. Keeping Trinidad guessing and not allowing him to set.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sakDjoOB80c[/ame]


Someone is to watch in this department is a young Holyfield. He use to bounce with real purpose on his toes.

Will add more later...