it all depends. i'm southpaw and my right uppercut-cum-hook to the body is my best punch. put my trainer down twice with it. its good as well to the head after a jab, you can use it kinda like a jab but with the palm facing sideways and give it power with your legs. this way it gets through the guard much better than a palm-down punch.
i love my left uppercut i like to throw alot of jabs and move out or range then jump in with a LU and as long as you dont get banged on the way in its a lovely way to set up a combo. I find i get more power off my left than on my right
practice alternating 1-2-hook-2 and 1-2-LU-2. throw it from your face just like any other punch, which is the key to not getting countered. if you telegraph their straight right will beat you all day long. once you get comfortable with it you'll see plenty of openings, especially against opponents that have loose guard with their arms to their body (get it between their arms, aiming at their throat and LIFT the head up, and score with the straight right). and for southpaws the RU is a great counter to slip to your right/outside their jab and shoot the shot up the middle, lifting the head for the scoring straight left.
Nice tips, thanks! I agree people like Barrera and Marquez throw it really well, I just can't seem to get comfortable with it yet, I'll keep at it and see how it goes.
Can be an amazing punch if executed but also very risky because you open up. Wouldn't say its wasted, but definitely suits some fighters more than others. If thrown Barrera/Marquez style its a similar type of tradeoff to a lead right hook if you're an orthodox (stepping in and throwing your bodyweight into it if you get what I'm talking about). Can be a knockout if you land it, but you're open to being nailed yourself.
Abraham almost decapitated Gevor with one... Watch Morales throw the left uppercut. Works real nice after feinting an overhand right. Watch Margarito hit guys with 3 or 4 in a row. Not sure where to find an example of this, but when a guy is covering up you can knock his right glove out of the way with a right cross, and sneak a left uppercut into the opening. Works. A fighter without a lead uppercut is incomplete.
You can use that as a set up punch as well, dont put too much power on it, shoot your jab, Left upper, then your right hand, that left upper will blind your man for a split second and also help create and opening for that right hand to land....
It is an awesome punch. Especially to split the guard. It is a bit risky, but I love to use it especially after you have a person respecting your cross. If you can do it with a quick switch? You can deliver BRUTAL body shots with it.
Marquez is a perfect example of left uppercut display. And let's not forget Ricardo Finito Lopez, whose style is copied by Marquez. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQfc58XeQXQ[/ame]
exactly, throw it from your face. in the amateurs you can't afford to throw it like barrera (especially if you are, like, not barrera). definitely an excellent alternative to a hook as a counter after slipping outside. use a counter hook a bit, then slip outside with your front foot while rotating into your front foot and boom into the ribs. believe me this shot is awesome.
Its a really good punch, its sometimes what you need to turn a fight around, it inflicts alot of damage. i went to see aa fight the other day and there was a heavyweight match, and one of the kids was catching some big shots and had a bloody nose and was puring blood from his mouth, i felt sorry for the kid, also because the other kid was at his home, but then afterwards the kid threw and landed the best punch of the fight which was a left uppercut, it busted the other kids nose and slowed his offense down greatly, the kid that landed the uppercut still ended up loosing, he quit and i give him props, the other kid kept hitting him behind the head and the referee wouldn't give out a warning (possibly because the kid was in his hometown where he most likely was from too, so the kid quit as the other kept hitting behind the head. if you want a great example of effectivity of the left uppercut then you might want to study some Wilfredo Gomes films... the man used it in a devastating way and its supposely written in sports illustrated that ray leonard develop the "perfect" left uppercut to beat benitez by watching films of Gomez. he also used it to finish of alot ofn his oppoenents throwing it to the body throughout the whole fight and for the Ko long combos of the left uppercut-big right hand-left uppercut-big right hand... in case your interested he displays this in this vid [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDMgHtoJqZ4[/ame]
I don't care much for it because it feels so unnatural. However, my coach trains a combo he said one of his fighters used to get a KO win in Olympic trials in 2004. The combo is left uppercut+left hook+left uppercut, step away. He says nobody expects it and the punches you don't see coming are the ones that do the most damage. He's been coaching fighters for over 40 years, so I trust him. Still, it feels "wrong" throwing that combo, but I do what he says. Have never tried it in sparring because I don't know if I can pull it off.
It can be brutally effective. Especially if you fight out of a stance where your lead hand is lower and you have a guy respecting your straight right and jab. Work to establish the jab. Then establish the 1-2. Then out of the blue you can flash the jab, just use the twist of the straight to get his hands up high and... Split his guard and let it rip, POW!