Mastering a certain style of boxing- let's break down the technical factors

bump

 

He is pretty much an offensive machine who maximized, and I mean really maximized, his advantage in distance.

 

I might give one a go real soon.

 

Bump, will get one at the weekend

 

I might write one for Tony Canzoneri soon

 

Have fun doing that. TC was a style in himself.

 

Excellent thread.
I do like to see someone make a break down on Juan Manuel Marquez and Sergio Martinez. That would be interesting.

 

Okay, I'll give it a go. I'm gonna go by Pater's format, I think it's really good.

Sergio Martinez

Martinez is a speedster in every sense of the word. His style is predicated on fast feet and fast hands: He circles and darts at angles, countering in spurts and unleashing brief, fully committed strafe's. Stick and defend is his mantra, though he is less of a mover then categorized. Movement is something he does well, and has made great use of, but often, its his command of range and ability to leap in that comes in most handy. In several of his fights he's circled primarily as a defensive manuever, and let his opponents come into him. For a mover, he's very heavy on his feet sometimes.

Stance
Martinez keeps his hands very low, but there is a method to his madness. But presenting his face, and standing very heavily on his back foot, he seeks to draw jabs from his opponents, which he either slips or moves away from, then leaps to counter from range. He does this throughout his fight's with Pavlik and Williams I. When he shifts his weight to the front foot, he usually begins to fire, pushing off his front toe and pivoting with the back foot to get out of dodge. He often sways as much as he moves, which is fairly unconventional, and he combines three rhythm motions, something that is difficult and rather rare-He shifts weight from front to back foot, swings his hands, and sways his torso back and forth.

Jab

The strength of Martinez's jab is the speed and snap behind it. He steps with it very well, and uses his natural handspeed to fire it from waist to face like a piston. He often aims for the chest, and though jabs like his don't really bust up or damage, they hurt and can break guards very early. Dzinziruk was essentially flummoxed from round one because his high guard, which had always been more or less effective against every opponent he ever fought, was being perforated like a sponge. Sergio is always very good at jabbing over an orthodox fighters left jab. He dominated the first 4 rounds against Kelly Pavlik by drawing the left stick and then pouncing over it with right jabs. His height and tendency to get power with his feet sometimes get him into trouble here, though, as he often leaps into a jab to give him speed and power. Pavlik picked up on this in the middle rounds and was able to time these counter attempts with some flush shots.

The Power Shots

Martinez doesn't punch in combination with much force; Usually, when he's firing sequences of power shots, he does so in stinging, staccato style, going for speed and volume followed by a quick escape, rather than anything particularly punishing. When Martinez wants to do real damage to an opponent, he does so with single shots, and often drives his whole weight into them.

In round 9 against Pavlik, he abandoned his strategy of jab jumping and largely switched to lead left hands, to spectacular success. By shooting his left hand full force at Pavlik's face, he surprised the slower champion and hit him flush many times, opening a second, worse cut and nearly stopping him with the onslaught that followed.

In round 2 of the Williams rematch, Sergio waited until Paul opened his face when he threw his own left hand, and put him to sleep with a single, lead left hand, bang on the chin, driving forward.

Round 7 of the Cintron fight saw a similar move. Kermit cocks back his right hand slightly when he throw's his 1-2, so Sergio timed a jab with a big, fully committed left lead and sent Kermit sprawling.

When Sergio bounces from front foot to back, more often than not, a big left lead is coming up.

His right hook is wide, and sweeping, but contains perhaps more sheer force then any other weapon in his arsenal. He likes to shoot it as a lead, often from further out than is conventional safe, and whips his hips into the shot drastically. This often makes him look wild when attempting the punch, particularly because he neglects to keep his left hand up.

His right hook is most effective as a cap, or exclamation point, to one of his carpet bombs, or as a follow up to a body-head trickshot. Martinez did tons of damage to Williams and Bunema by touching to the body with lead left hands and walloping them upstairs with arcing hooks. He is able to do this with his considerable handspeed and difficult rhythm.

Defense

His defense is in his attributes. Martinez is fast fast fast, and a terrific athlete. His low hands and basic head movement would be disastrous for a lesser fighter, but his awkward stance, rhythm, and considerable speed keep his chin safe from harm. At his best, he isn't block or slipping your punches but making them fall inches short with his feet and torso, and coming back immediately over them, called "leapfrogging" or "leaping" in Philly, to discourage follow up. Williams, in the first fight, found his best success when he just kept throwing. In the 4th round in particular, he hammered Sergio with huge shots, but they were punches 5,6,7, and 8 of a combination, not the first several. Get Sergio to exhaust his lines of defense to hit him; Punch till he cant back away or lean away or pull away any longer, and you'll probably hit paydirt.

Mechanics

Sergio's style is his own, and not very textbook. He uses snapping punches very well, amplified by his speed, but not everybody has the sheer velocity to make capgun punches as damaging as Martinez does. His right hook is actually rather wide, and very much a Sunday punch. I've never seen him throw it very short. A lesser fighter mimicking Sergio would have more success were he an amateur, not a professional; Indeed, were it not for his considerable athletic talents and phenomenal natural speed, I doubt he'd be a champion. However, given that he has them, his strange and unique style becomes a nightmare.


JMM to follow when I get home, if this is considered decent. How'd I do?

 

GREAT stuff !:good

 

WOW. Great analysis. Much appreciated dude!
You broke every single detail perfectly. I remember hearing Jim Lampley calling Martinez's style "ambush fighting." Martinez is definitely a unique fighter with his own kind of style and great athleticism. He certainly has that Roy Jones-feel to him.

 

Juan Manuel Marquez

Marquez is a textbook technician from the Beristain school of catch and counter: Soak up a pressure fighter then ring him out, or figure out a slickster and solve him. He's a versatile boxer-puncher with a well-rounded skillset, but is most comfortable catching and countering, using parries and pulls to avoid damage while drawing an opponent from their center, and then blasting them with hard, hurtful counters, and does in combination. He mixes his shots up beautifully, from uppercuts to hooks to straights and back, and rarely hits his foes with one or two, but often four or five.

Stance

Marquez is heavy on his feet, sacrificing mobility and stylized footwork for an effective base for power punching and good balance for countering. He keeps his torso relatively square for as good an operator as he is, but does so to have a faster, smoother liner for his uppercuts. He keeps his right hand glued to his cheek, and holds his left hand high and extended, glove parallel, to catch and parry. His fencer's left hand is the most easily noticeable thing about his stance, and he keeps it this way to manipulate, catch, and parry shots in order to lead foes into big right hands.

Jab

JMM doesn't really utilize one. He has a fairly good one, in that its textbook: Its thrown with the proper mechanics, and he steps into it very well. He uses the punch very sporadically though, and rarely if ever without a follow up combination. He's just not a jabber.

The power shots

Marquez has a wonderful and versatile right hand. Beristain once said that in his early education, he and Juan took months to just work on his right hand, to make sure it always returned to position, and to enable JMM to fire any punch with it he may need. This special, intense attention has developed Marquez's right into a terrific weapon for any situation.

There is no right handed punch JMM can't throw. His straight right is perfectly linear and sharp, his sweeping right hand see's him load onto his back foot and swivel his hips perfectly into it, his overhand right is short and compact, and his right uppercut is simply poetry. He is also so coordinated and confident with this hand he can throw three or four right hands in a row with no left hands in between. Several times against Pacquiao, he'd parry a right with his guarding left glove, fire a sharp right to get Pacquaio to duck or lean, pop his head up with a right uppercut and punish him with another type of right hand, all in sequence.

His hook's and uppercuts are beautiful. Perfect punch mechanics, and his combinations flow beautifully, one punch to another. Very rarely to you see a technician utilize double and triple uppercuts like Marquez, particularly in the Diaz fight; Some of the combo's he landed on the other Juan were jaw dropping. Fighting Marquez when his offense is dialed in is like fighting a buzzsaw; His power shot arsenal is what makes his special, and if he dials into your rhythm and starts successfully countering your offensive forays with combinations, he's going to begin to punish you in rapid order.

His power is actually fairly pedestrian, but he often scores knockouts, particularly because he can either gain accumulative damage so quickly its like an avalanche, like the Katsidis fight, where he would hit Michael with several eight or nine punch combo's a round, or because he can score such combinations. Four or five straight power shots on the chin are very, very difficult to weather when they occur in the span of three or four seconds, and this is how Marquez scores most of his stoppages.

Defense

JMM actually ignores this aspect in large degree because he wants you to punch. His chin is quite good and his recovery is better, and he believes in it. Its his best defense, and he is okay relying on it because an opponent throwing is an opponent he can counter and nail. His most prominent defensive features are his adept use of parries and his gloves held in proper position. You rarely if ever catch Marquez with his hands out of position, and he is very good at picking off single shots with his left and responding immediately with shots of his own. He use his feet and his left hand to parry Pacquaio's bumrushes, and when Manny was out of position as he often gets at the very end of his strings of shots, fire back with hurtful hooks and right hands. His offense is his best defense, followed by his parrying, followed by his toughness.

Mechanics

Marquez does nothing wrong from an offensive stand point besides ignoring the jab. His punches are perfect in terms of form, footwork, and context. He's heavy on his feet, but this is a very conscious aspect of his style, as without a base with which to give his counter's authority his effectiveness against the elite would evaporate. His defense is risk vs. reward- He stands too squarely and keeps his head fairly stationary, but is okay to take a couple if he can hit you with a big counter combination. This is often his biggest undoing in the fights he's lost-If he got hit less, he'd could have probably won every fight he's been in bar Mayweather.

Overall, JMM is a sublime offensive fighter who trades defensive flaws to maximize his opportunities to do damage. As his reflexes slow he has become increasingly easy to hit, but he almost always fires back and has a big heart and plenty of grit. He is the perfect example of a Beristain technician: A counter puncher with terrific form who always responds to fire with more fire. A combination puncher with few peers.