Finishing skills

there was no greater finisher than joe louis. i can assure that when most members here read your thread, the name that came first was joe louis.

difficult to describe what makes a great finisher, but you will get a lost of poster doing it.

my own suggestion is to look at some of his fights. i keep advising everyone to look at one of his early defenses....louis vs nathan mann.
then look at his final defense when he was no longer in his prime, against jersey joe walcott. his round thirteen against billy conn 1 is another.

 

I think it's really about having the general presence of mind to place punches with diverse angles, location, and speeds to "open up" an opponent who's in survival mode. It's highly exaggerated as a "skill" that some select group of boxers have.

 

KRUSHER Kovalev

 

A finisher is a fighter who specializes in setting up a sequence of events, or capitalizing on an opportunity, to take their opponent out of the fight. A finisher will usually be a heavy puncher, but this not necessarily the case. There have been finishers who were not exceptionally heavy punchers, who were able to do it based on technique, and unpredictability, which are the most important factors in a finisher. While punchers are ten a penny, genuinely good finishers, are comparatively rare.

 

I thinks it the skill to throw hurtful unpredictable punches to a hurt opponent who is trying their hardest to survive. Most fighters when hurt or stunned will clinch or move out of range. The finisher can't just run in wildly because of counters or get tied up, nor can they give up to much ground to allow recovery. A finisher can't load up too much and telegraph punches nor tire themself with missed shots. Its the perfect balance between all these that makes a great finisher.

Often a great finisher will use the exact same punch that previously hurt an opponent but disguises it with a different set up combo, body punches or feints.

Good examples are Aaron Pryor vs Arguello/Dejuan Johnson and Diego Corrales vs Freitas and SRL vs Hearns 1

 

Technique is certainly important for a finisher. Louis, Tyson, Robinson, Arguello etc all threw very textbook and very precis punches and mastered the whole range of punches. Shavers, on the other hand, didn't have great technique and variety to his punching, and therefore wasn't much of a finisher.

And then there's the coolness, experience and predatory instincts. Ali vs Lyle is a good example here. When Lyle regains enough composure to cover up, Ali actually stops punching for a second or two. Lyle is so surprised that he looks up and loosens his guard a bit, and instantly gets jolted by a right from Ali.

And Louis was as cool as they come. Never wasted a punch. Tyson, for all his fury, was as well. Look at him against Berbick, his first big fight, for example. A 20-year old with that kind of controlled fury... Sanchez had ice in his veins. Him against Gomez is a masterclass in when to bid your time and when to turn it on. Robinson against LaMotta - "unleashing hell" on his own command when he saw that the Bull was there for the taking. And it was really the body shots that finished Jake, I think. Vicious hooks to the liver, perfect against a crouching opponent like that.

But then we have one or two that goes against the grain here. Marciano wasn't precise or scientific (Walcott I being the exception), but got the job done by just never letting up once he saw his opponent weakening. It certainly worked for him.

 

Ali is a good example of a finisher, who was not a particularly heavy hitter.

Given the exceptionally high mean quality of his opposition, we would definitely expect his knockout percentage to be impacted, but it is still pretty high.

 

As for fighters with pretty average power, Ali is definitely one of the best finishers. While a much more powerful fighter like Shavers is a much lesser finisher.

Patience is really a key in being a good finisher. Especially if you don't have great power or stamina. Especially stamina. Heavy punchers like Foreman and Shavers had a tendency to blow their load.

 

Well said.

And another thing about the finishers.....they do it within a window of opportunity. That window may only be there for 5 or 10 seconds.

The other important factor with the finshers is when an opponent is busted up. Man, who wants to be in there with a Ray Leonard with a busted up eyebrow? Or Larry Holmes? The finishers know how to get the tko result and do not have to put an opponent on the deck to get it.

When they get a guy ready to go from either being hurt via punches or a physical injury, they close the show. And they do it quick.

Just like Janitor said, punchers are ten a penny. genuinly good finishers are rare.

 

Yeah, that's part of what I had in mind when I talked about punch diversity.

 

Yeah, being a finisher isn't about power so much as its about strategically using diverse punches. Question: Are there any fighters with good punch repertoires and ring intelligence who aren't good finishers when they've got their men legitimately hurt?

 

Composure, coolness, the ability to not get over-excited when the (sometimes very brief) moment presents itself to finish the opponent. That composure helps with selection of the right punch from the right angle.

Self confidence that when THE moment comes, you will take it.

Bad technique and lack of composure can lead to poor finishing; an example of tis being when Bruno stung Tyson, it seemed to me ha almost panicked (through a lack of genuine self belief imo) and just threw anything, seemingly blindly.

Shavers v Holmes was another example of this, although against Norton Shavers finished Ken very well...I think against Norton I think Shavers really was confident of getting a kayo but against Holmes probably felt it may be the only chance he would get and was flustered in his follow up.

Joe Louis was the first name I thought of when I saw this thread, Arguello another good shout.

Another factor that I don't think has been mentioned in this thread which I think is very important when finishing...good balance...I think the ability to finish is greatly enhanced if you have good balance.