Was mentioned last night on HBO with regards to Abregu and his awkward style where they bounce on spot on throw powerful punches. It's a interesting topic. I notice a trait in most of the Puerto Rican fighters they often are very precise punchers who like to control the pace and are very good movers laterally. Juanma even does the Cotto habit of pushing his shorts down slightly in the heat of battle . Anyways do you notice these national fighting traits? and if so could you name examples and even tag the nation with a main style. I mean i don't watch a great deal of Asian boxing but do they have a stereotypical style?. Do we even have it in this country?. Thoughts..:good
Definitely there are national or more specifically cultural styles. When you grow up and are training early on you get influenced by professionals and their styles as well as cultural traits. I feel that In the UK guts/heart are hugely respected more so than in the USA where skill/charisma are paramount. Not to say the US doesn't produce tough fighters obviously just a general trend.
If there is such a thing as a national style my favourite by far is Cuban. So many Cubans have great balance & coordination, they dont waste many punches & make boxing look so effortless & stylish. That teenage flyweight who won Olympic gold in the summer was exceptional. My least favourite national style is Eastern European, lots of straight punches behind high guard with no upperbody movement.
Good points Matt,Roy said something similar to your post last night. European's would be a major one as many of them use same techniques to defend and often use the same type of punches and footwork. They rarely stray away from there national style IMO. There's some exceptions but it's a very pure fundamental style with everything very text book and rigid. Some more reactive then others..
Personally I would say that is a more Central/Eastern European style though there are always exceptions Proksa is hardly an orthodox fighter for example. However, you couldn't say British fighters follow that style as religiously probably due to the way Britain is with colonial influence as well as European roots. We produce a lot of basic, fundamentally sound high guard European style boxers (mainly out of Joe gallaghers gym zing!) but also more slick style fighters (Hamed, Haye, Ochieng etc). It isn't even a racial thing IMO as you have guys like Benn, Eubank, Haye, Nelson black English boxers with completely different styles. Obviously Slick, Black Americans is a cultural fighting style, probably mainly influenced by big super stars being reknowned "slick" fighters. Ali, SRL, Whittaker, Tyson in his way, RJJ, Mayweather, Broner.. there are obvious influences in that regard. If you're growing up in an American gym your style is going to be influenced by seeing those guys and aspiring to be like them. IMO although there are national trends your fighting style is more based on the gym you fight out of and in different countries there is a greater variation of styles than others.
Teak tough Ghanaian's from Accra, the same city as Azumah Nelson Brawling Mexicans Light hitting Italians Fat, talented Cubans Slick black Americans
Yeah i don't really look at our fighters as European's personally. Even though we are i feel we often go about things on our own away from the rest of the continent. But yep it's Eastern European style, although most of the continent often fight in a textbook manner IMO.
I don't really know enough about it to comment, but you can definitely tell the different styles in different nations. Mexicans, Cubans etc.
rough tough hard hitting wife beating drunken beef chewing - latin americans - duran, monzon , mayorga and valero types
Funnily enough I think that the Gallagher style is probably the typical sort of "British style" march forward hands high block and parry punches rather than slip and move to medium to inside range to go to work.
No and most of their fights take place in venues with less atmosphere than the moon ^ much better than Euro-bots
