Does the Counter-Punching Style Require Greater Ring IQ and Skills to Use?

It's hell of alot easier to have "great" timing when your target is readily predictable. Think of a bullfight, if your opponent is just barreling at you in straight lines, it's easy to anticipate and time your opponent. On the other hand, aggressors have to "make" openings whereas counterpunchers, like matadors, really just have to anticipate the openings afforded to them. To say that counterpunchers have better anticipation than aggresive come-forward ones is inaccurate. They don't have better anticipation, it's an illusion. Rather it's more because they are given that advantage by default. So it's "easier" to look more skilled...to look more polished, to look more composed.


Inversely when it comes to landing a punch, it takes more skill to land on a target that can move away than to one that is coming right at you. Trust me, matadors wouldn't look nearly as gracefulif they're matched against tigers (there'd be more dead ones too). Let's just say, a stalking and pouncing target is alot less predictable than one that is barreling in. Hitting a baseball would be another good analogy. Most homeruns are hit off of fastballs down the middle. It takes someone of sublime skill, like an Albert Pujols, to hit one slicing away, ie a curveball. But I bet you he doesn't look half as good as when he smashes a fastball 500 ft. In short, it's easy to look good when you're hitting a predictable object.

So no, counterpunchers aren't necessarily more skilled, it's just easier to appear that way. At the end of the day...counterpunching is a method, a tactical style to compensate if you're ability to push the action is lacking. It is a tool a fighter utilizes to give him a better chance to win. Let's put it this way, if JMM could've beaten Pacquiao by going to war, he would have. Of course he knew he couldn't....in that sense, you can consider that hi ring IQ.

 

A lot of it has to do with instincts, too. I have a sparring partner that is a natural counter puncher. He can unload on the bag just as much as me, but as soon as someone attacks him, his instinct is to wait for the opening and only take it when it's available. Mine is to disregard and overwhelm - I have no patience. It's not intellect - it's innate. You just do what seems "right" to you. I don't think your average counterpuncher is any smarter than your average swarmer, it's just a difference in temperament that you can't really change when you are getting hit in the face - you do what comes naturally.

You can see that Pac can counter punch well against guys who come at him, but he loses patience and gets wild, because he doesn't feel like he's winning the round if he is not landing frequently. Counterpunchers are probably much harder to fluster, because they are patient. Floyd has brilliant ring IQ, but so too did relentlessly aggressive Aaron Pryor and controlled destroyer Marvin Hagler - they did what they felt natural to win.

 

of course it does