The all things technical thread.

Technically i wouldn't reccommend starting out with Mauy Thai if you wanna become a boxer. The mechanics and what you're looking out for are just different.

The main thing that will suffer is your defense. Because you're coming from using your legs to attack as well as your whole positioning is different to that of boxing. You're aligning your torso different,, you sqaure up a lot more. Sometimes your offense suffers too. Because you're not ganna be as refined as someone who is used to practicising and using only their hands all their life, while you've been using your hands AND your legs. So you're punching technique might not be as good. Elbows might be too far out.

You become more open to bodyshots when you turn to boxing. Most Muay Thai guys will be taught to have their guard stuck right up to their face, which is a bad thing to do in boxing sometimes because you're blinding yourself. The Muay Thai stance doesn't allow you to fight off centre and be loosy, goosy because they're watching out for kicks and not just punches. It's totally different mechanics.

I just wouldn't get someone who intends to become a boxer, not start with boxing, do you get what i mean? It's like a tennis player starting off playing table tennis or having someone wanting to become a bastketball player doing a similar but in some ways totally different sport. I hope that makes sense, because i appreciate it's not the best examples there. lol

It does sometimes just depend on the quality of trainer though. Sometimes going to a Muay Thai gym with a good trainer is better than going to a boxing gym with a very bad one.

Anyway, good luck with it, mate. I have nothing against Muay Thai in general.

'Staunchly' might be a little extreme, Flea. But, yeah. I'm definitely not for you starting your career out in that field if you wanna become a boxer. I just think fundamentally you pick up too many bad habits. Which might be hard to fix. I know some would disagree.

 

Nah, not seen that, mate.

Anyway, however bad the amateur system is right now i still wouldn't advise someone to go the Muay Thai route before a boxing career. I agree the training has a lot to do with it and the Muay Thai in Europe is kind of a bootleg version. But If you're ganna box then just box. That's my view. Repetition is the key to learning and mastering something.

 

Was anyone else really intrigued by Martinez/Macklin technically? I thought it was a quality fight with so many little things going on and really good to look at technically.

Macklin kind of showed things he's never shown before. He really surprised me in those early rounds. Now, Martinez was trying to figure him out and getting into things but Macklin at least gave him things to THINK about and gave himself the best chance. I love the adjustment Martinez made to land his left hand...The best compliment you can pay Macklin is that he brought out the best in Martinez. I really enjoyed watching that fight from a technical stand point. Sometimes people just wanna see the end result and don't appreciate how things get there.

James McGirt Sr. really layed out a very good gameplan for Macklin. He realised the more you lead and throw against Martinez the more chances you present him. So he had him circling well, getting his foot positioning right and feinting to set up his punches. I really want people to watch what Macklin was doing in those early rounds because it gets lost with what happened in the end. That's how you beat Martinez! McGirt also really relaxed his guard and improved his footwork. Whatever he did it wasn't ganna be good enough because he was just the significantly weaker horse in the race, but he at least gave us a really intriguing fight.

I liked the way he would feint, never thought i'd see that from Macklin. He'd keep Martinez guessing and then as Martinez was stepping out throw a right hand to the body and head. How many people thought Macklin could really THINK and execute it for as long as he did against someone as good as Martinez. His problem was he wasn't good enough to stay with Martinez, once Sergio stepped up the gears. He also couldn't keep up with him in the exchanges as Martinez has such a HUGE speed advantage on him.

He got mentally and physically drained as the fight went on and Martinez started reading his positioning. Sometimes thinking THAT much and fighting such a savy, celebral fight can be mentally draining. Because you're thinking all the time and trying to anticipate. Also his punch imagination and release was never ganna be good enough and so he was ganna become more and more predictable as the fight went on, defensively AND offensively. If you notice he couldn't follow up the right hands with a left hook.

 

Where do we start. Horrible boxing technique.

 

Yep, he was crossing over with the right hand. Also he could only avoid the left hand one way and only getting into one position. Once Martinez figured out how to land it he couldn't miss. He would slightly lower it, in the beginning he would try and hit Macklin directly, but Macklin would make a little movement to his left or backwards and was avoiding it. But what Martinez did was he started to place the left hand not directly where Macklin's head would start, but where it would finish up after he made the movement. Great adjustment!

I hope the Barker fight happens. I think Macklin beats Barker, who's a little too straight up. Maybe even stops him.