Ring tactics and circling

Away from the power hand. Especially to the left for a southpaw. If you go towards the right that straight left is gonna nail ya every time!

To stay off the ropes work on quarter turns like Miguel Cotto does. Strength comes into play when it comes to clinching. If you can control a guy in a clinch then you can stay off the ropes. Since you should always have a forward presence as a boxer then you will be able to put your head under his jaw and control him. Look up Golovkin teaching Barrera control in clinch for more information.

 

I'm from the states. Ali is a good example of effective clinching that I can think of off the top of my head. Dempsey too. He was effective at keeping the guy close in order to fight on the inside. Not the rabbit punches but when he actually fights.

 

I think it's good to learn to switch between orthodox and southpaw, it gives you much more options. This isn't easy though because if you really want to be good at switching to the other stance you need to train your muscles to get used to both southpaw and orthodox. So it's not just switching that you train but the entire orthodox/southpaw angle of footwork.

Personally I don't think this "stay away from the power hand" should be some sort of golden rule. Many people don't use their rear hand efficiently, they telegraph it way too much and their range is off. If you're fighting a jabber you should rather stay away from his jab.

I'm an orthodox fighter and when I fight another orthodox fighter I tend to move to my left in the center of the ring, I like to pivot with my left foot and circle around. I'm actually wanting him to unload the right hand so I can check hook him with my lead hook. As soon as I see his right shoulder moving I'm shooting my pivoting left hook. His right will hit the air because I'm pivoting away to another angle while my left hits his head. Check hook beats the right hand but you have to drill it really well.

I don't know why some people are so afraid of the opponent's power hand, if he's not some specialists with overhand rights or lead rights then he's going to be hitting air if you know how to defend using range and timing. 90% of people who train boxing don't know how to throw the right hook correctly, many coaches don't even believe in it. At the beginner level the only way people know to use the right hand is as a part of one-two. Most people rely on their jab rather than the right hand and set up everything with the jab, if you move away from their jab you upset their entire foundations of boxing. Just work on countering the right hand so that when they do throw it you blast them with a well timed accurate powerful lead hook.

Another thing that I like to do when fighting on the outside is to use that Rigondeaux-style walk you see here on 1:58 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kfOfz2fBHQ Basically you walk up and down, protect your chin with your shoulder and use the slow version of "Ali shuffle" to keep the opponent guessing, once you see the exit you quickly circle out.

I think that the best way to train this style is by using it a lot during sparring and don't give up if it doesn't work at start. You need to become really comfortable with the ring and develop the right instincts. The problem is that in the beginning you think too much about what you will do, where will you move and where will the opponent go. When you have enough experience you don't even think about it, everything becomes completely natural.

 

I'm nowhere near NJ lol I heard that there is a gym where Arturo Gatti trained called the World Boxing Gym in Jersey City. Although I don't know how close that is to you.

 

I believe in being a complete fighter. Good defense, good offense, inside, outside, etc. There is no one good way to circle but people have more power in their back hand rather than front hand. As you feel out your opponent then you can change it up but to start I would recommend that.

You should never be in a position where the opponent can hit you other than when on the offensive. So that means getting in and out.

 

I agree. But I definitely like to circle away from the jab and try to lure the opponent to throw the right hand then counter it with a pivoting left check hook. If it's some wide looping right hook you duck under it and attack from the angle. At the same time you're taking his jab away since you're circling away from his left making your opponent overcommitting or missing. I don't see this as particularly risky. People have more power in the right hand but rarely know how to use it if you don't just stand in front of them. It's very hard to use the right hand against a moving opponent.

 

In general yes. When you're fighting on the outside you're supposed to stay outside of your opponents range as long as possible. But sometimes it's good to lure your opponent to start hitting and then counter him. If you're a counterpuncher that's practically a must. Constantly getting in and out is very tiring. I rather circle around and bait my opponent for most of the round and then when I feel the time is right I go into offensive.

 

IMO, newer boxers should always practice both, left and right circles, almost equally to get the footwork skills down with patterns. Then with experience you'll learn how to use which skills inside which strategies.

and Zetsui, you practically answered your own question about staying off the ropes ... with circles. don't get into the basketball habit of forwards for offense and backwards for defense. keep circling for defense, which will set up your next offense. I like L-shapes; attack-one big step back-three steps left or right, repeat alternating right and left. this'll keep you in the center (overhead view would look like S shapes or almost figure 8's). again, it's a beginner pattern to learn, and can be applied to sparring/competitions.

 

Yeah it comes down to how you prefer to counterpunch. I'm more comfortable countering from the inside while making the guy miss through the use of head-movement.

 

Personally I like to bait the guy into attacking forward in a straight line while I shoulder roll and slowly pivot to the left then when I see his chin exposed I throw a pivoting left check hook and move to another angle. I did this numerous times at sparring and fights so it works really well for me. Shoulder roll is crucial here because you can keep an eye on your opponent (as opposed to having your hands up which decreases your vision) and you can see exactly when the chin is hanging in the air or at least his face is exposed. The most crucial part is keeping your own chin behind your shoulder and glancing off his blows.

I like to force my kind of fight on the opponent and that is a slow pace fight where I mostly circle around. With check hooks and other counters I discourage him to be too aggressive. I'm explosive and fast but I don't have a good cardio, that's why I pick my attacks rather than just turning it into a dogfight and fighting on the inside. Just last week I sparred first time after 2 months and I went 8 rounds straight easily because I paced myself correctly and was economical with my lateral movement. When I was a beginner I had better cardio but was dead after 3 rounds.

 

Another important thing if you want to fight on the outside and move a lot is to really condition your feet and especially calves. A lot of skipping rope and a lot of shadowboxing that focuses on movement. Drills with the ladder and similar stuff is good too because it increases your foot speed. Boxing footwork involves specific muscles that you need to develop through hard training.