I was thinking the other day after rewatching a few old and new fights: How come a boxer will win a fight and dominate, then the next fight cant pull the trigger, then the next fight, he/she will box well again. I can under RJJ's case being KO'd by Tarver, then not wanting to throw punches against Johnson due to Johnson's pressure or keeping Johnson off of him or honest, which ended in a KO again. After his loses to Tarver and Johnson, he started to punch again and looked like himself with 3 decent wins until Zaggers. Take MA Barrera. 4 good wins against Hammed, Morrales, Tapia, Kelly. Looked Elite. Then against Pacquiao, looked terrible and reluctant to throw (aside from the bogus KD call in the 1st). After that fight, looked great again against Ayala and Peden Next up Vlad Klit. Hasn't lost in 11 years, looks great up until Jennings fight where some of his dominance starts to fade. however, in the Tyson Fury fight, the guy just didn't do Sh*t! Could not pull the trigger for the life of him. But in his next fight with a far more intimidating, athletic, explosive man, Klit boxes like he hasn't in years. So what makes boxers not be able to throw in some/most cases. I know a bad KO loss like in RJJ fight contributed to his reason. Is it the prefight trash talk? The intimidation? The "feeling" of just being in the ring with some guys (Ie. Mike Tyson, Sonny Liston, Aaron Pryor) Nerves? Style? Let me know from the guys that actually fought before and has experienced this feeling.
Styles. Wlad still probably missed opportunities against AJ(case in point, after he kdd AJ) he wouldn't have in years past. But AJ was much more there to be hit than Fury, who was longer, quicker, and more elusive than AJ.
Feel. Most of the time their opponent just feels different and makes them reluctant to throw. Also mentality, not everyone will be in the same mindset for every fight.
You're not accounting for who they are fighting which is why you see the disparity in performance, in regards to punch out put or pulling the trigger as you put it. RJJ's opposition in Ajamu, Hanshaw and an old fat Tito can't compare to Calzaghe, Tarver and Johnson. Who trades with Pac? Barerra may have been something of a warrior in his youth and been involved in some memorable wars but even that version of Barrera would have been overwhelmed and stopped by Pac had he just traded with Pac. You don't trade with Pac, too fast, too powerful, too much volume. Wlad didn't throw against Fury because Fury was a mobile target, he didn't let Wlad set to throw his punches. AJ is far more stationary so it was easier to set to throw unlike with Fury. Movement can kill volume, Hopkins did that time and again with many fighters. Tito, Pavlik, even Calzaghe the human punching machine couldn't throw at anywhere near his normal rate.
Mosely after Forrest too! I believe it has to do with thinking before reacting. They get into their mind that they won't throw until the time is right, instead of reacting to what they see, they analyze briefly and by that time it is too late. I remember watching an interview with Barry Sanders and he was asked if he thinks about a move he is going to do before he does it. He couldn't answer. He instinctively reacted to what was going on instead of thinking. All those guys you mentioned just reacted to what was going on and never had to think about doing anything. Once doubt or fear was put into the mix they were forced to think.
Style of the opponent is the main thing. Another thing could be insufficient preparation, a lack of quality sparring.
being unable to pull the trigger should only refer to an old fighter who has lost that split second in reaction time, where his reflexes are now too slow to catch the opponent and he just ends up leaving himself exposed when he throws. there is a very small window of time between seeing an opening and successfully reacting fast enough to take advantage of that opening. an old fighter can see the opening, but before he can react, the opening is gone, so he does nothing. anything besides that is just unwillingness, and not inability.
Basically agree with this. When a fighter sees an opening and his reflexes are too shot for him to take advantage of the opening then he can't "pull the trigger". On the other hand, if the opponent is giving you too much movement to allow you to get set to punch when you want to then that is not an inability to pull the trigger. As discussed above, fighters' outputs decrease when facing master boxers because they know how to upset your timing. Good thread by the way.
yep. we can think of it like a game of whack a mole, if the moles are too fast for your reflexes, you end up just holding the mallet and trying to anticipate the next opportunity... which often never comes.
