I started watching this old Juan Manuel Marquez fight and noticed with his footwork when moving forward he moves his backfoot first and then moves his front foot, from memory joe louis did this from time to time too. Here is the fight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_curpwu8_0 You can see what i'm talking about around the 5 min mark I always thought that the proper way to move forward was to move your front foot first followed by your back foot? Is this correct? Is marquez using a different move, if so for what purpose? Thanks
The way you mentioned it is a proper way. I watched the clip, and he actually stretches out his front foot first. The thing is, if you miss watching him slide the front foot forward, it makes it look like his back foot is the one constantly getting moved forward first in a 1-2 step motion. It's clearer every time he throws that he leads with his front foot. He also pushes off of it at one point and brings it forward, but he lands with his front foot in front. The one mistake JMM sometimes makes is leaving his feet behind him when punching and leaning his upper body forward, though it's sometimes a successful tactic for getting deceptive range on his opponents. Joe Louis had a weird way of stepping towards the opponent with his feet very close, until he ended up in perfect position to unleash bombs at the end of his punches. Marciano mimicked this as well. I'd have to study it more, because the way I remember it is the back foot just coming up very quickly but still using the lead forward first, but generally you're probably better off the conventional way.
