“Pace yourself” is a losing strategy, why do world class fall for this nonsense?

Wlad after the Brewster fight learned to pace himself. He went all out in a war of attrition and gassed hard. Damn near collapsed walking back to his corner. It never happened again to that degree. He went on to hold a title for 10 years.

 

It can definitely backfire, going with too low a punch output. That burned Hopkins a couple of time

 

Funny we get all these threads about how today's fighters are better because of their amazing training techniques and conditioning and these guys can't even go 12 hard rounds.

 

In my opinion,
I think he should have started opening up & taking more chances since fight #2 instead of boxing off the back foot when Canelo pressed him in the 2nd half of that fight.

especially knowing the judges will simply not give him the decision in a close fight vs canelo it seems.

It’s always been my belief including in fight 2 & 3 that he should go for the KO even if getting violently KO’d himself.

Think Márquez Vs Paquiao 4
Similiar circumstances 40 year old Márquez moving up in weight against an opponent he simply could not get the decision over.
that gamble paid off BIG for Márquez!

i agree he should have gone all out.
I’m just stating why he likely didn’t.

not everybody is built the same & that takes huge balls as it’s extremely risky.

GGG can now go back down to 160lbs as champion & go for undisputed virtually unscathed, undamaged & unspoiled.
So that safety 1st approach is a smarter business decision that will lengthen his career.
(even though we fans like seeing KOs.)

 

I was thinking about this the other day. How did the fighters of yester year go 15 rounds. They must have trained to go 15 rounds and had previously done 15 rounds in competition so their bodies were conditioned for it. The fighters of today could do the same if they trained to do so but the pace of the fight would be slower I'd assume.

 

I don't disagree with you.
It becomes a question then of balance and yes on the outside both GGG and Loma slightly misjudged that balance by not having enough time to pull all those rounds back. It wasn't by a lot but clearly enough to lose the fight.
Both instances are different in some respects as the boxers are different in both dynamics and styles but the net result is the same.
I think it maybe partly difficult to gauge in terms of being in the fight as well as what your corner is telling you.
A bit like say Joshua in his first fight with Usyk in terms of not really getting hurt till the end but getting told he's doing brilliant when to everyone watching from the outside he's getting outpointed other than a few mid rounds.
So I don't always think it's easy for a fighter to gauge as easy as people observing watching TV with multiple angles and slow no.

 

Screw pacing yourself in a marathon too your losing precious ground in that first mile you will never get back

 

Yeah sure. Super easy amirite?

Tons of guys can pull it off and win legit titles at forty eight years old. That must be why you see so many of them. Oh wait, Hopkins is literally the only one.

 

Have you not heard of the hare and the tortoise?
I raced road / mountain / BMX bikes when younger and know that to be very much the case. In early races I went balls out only to get wrecked by the end of the race. So yeah pacing oneself whatever the discipline does matter. When your shot you have nothing left and if you've ever competed at anything you would know this.

 

You mean by pacing yourself?

Didn't you call that a losing stategy in the title? You ok bud?

 

Idiot. Marathoners do pace themselves. That's why they run the first mile of the race at a much slower than all out pace.