What THREE (3) minor, specific tweaks would you make to bring him over the hump to become truly world-class? You can hook him up with a different trainer, send him to a different weight class, add an offensive weapon to his arsenal, change his stance, eliminate a bad habit or other tendency, etc. Other than being restricted to three tweaks (and each must be a specific, single change) you have full omnipotence. Go.
Besides Rocky being painfully slow in his foot work, I think his greatest deficiency is his lack of a killer instinct. He can get his opponent hurt but reacts almost as if the fight is going the same way since round 1, and his lack of urgency in a fight he is losing is painful to watch because he can't get in that set of mind and you know he is not quite there yet. In the Chris John fight he actually had some sense of urgency knocked into him in the later half of the fight which probably gave him enough to reach the draw, regardless of how anybody else scored it. A little more of this and a title would be on his hands already.
Good stuff. The preferred format would be - 1. <explanation> - 2. <explanation> - 3. <explanation> :yep :good
1. Give him a better and more active jab. Having that would kinda force him to throw more combination punches once he sees that his jab is doing a great job and creating better opportunities. 2. Get a trainer who can drill him to master the art of cutting off the ring. You dont need to be the fastest boxer alive once you can consistently corner your opponents. 3. A cornerman who can inspire him and make him understand what's happening in the fight, and follow his instructions.
Roach really knows how to teach boxers how to cut off the ring instead of following them around. But he may be too laid back to help light up the fire in Juarez's belly when he's down on points and entering the championship rounds. Roach couldnt do it with Viloria when Brian was under him. Who's Brian's current trainer? I thought the new team did a good job making Viloria more consistently aggressive when he fought Solis in Manila for the championship.
Everything Rocky does or lacks comes down to his deficiency in footspeed.......he's just painfully slow to manuever the ring..... He chases as if he's dragging a ball and chain behind him....... In his fights, the commentators keep saying "if only Juarez let his hands go."..........but the reality is he cant let his hands go when his feet cant get him in a position to punch. Rocky does'nt need three things to make him better, he needs just one..... ......ok two, a spring and a hop to his step!
So just the addition of footspeed alone would bring him over the hump to becoming truly world-class? You wouldn't want to tweak any other concrete or intangible facets of his physical or mental game? Say you wield the power to make this so. Is there a practical real-world chain of events you would set in motion (as in, could he work on this if someone put a bug on his ear or rode his ass in the gym), or is this simply a deus ex machina wave of the wand?
1. Ballet lessons. I'm dead serious. Reasons have been stated succinctly by others. However, it's not just the speed of his feet but their positioning. He frequently drags one lazily behind the other resulting in too wide or too narrow (and almost always too unstable) a stance. Quick and nimble twinkle-toes would be great, but I'd settle for just being self-conscious of the appropriate distance between his dogs (and it is a tricky zone, like a pitcher trying to find strikes - too far in either direction will screw the pooch) and a workmanlike dedication to maintain this distance at all times, even if it takes away a little concentration from his offense. 2. Admit he kind of sucks on the inside. He strives to be more "Mexican" than he really is. Rocky needs to find his identity in the ring - I see him as more of a boxer-puncher. He should treat clinches as though they carry painful shocks. In fact, strapping a few patch electrodes on him in the gym and zapping him silly every time he falls in might not be a bad idea. Avoiding close quarters will in turn lead to more work done behind the jab, which in Rocky's case means good things. Every time he collides with an opponent he shores up like a beached whale and hesitates to throw...and when he does it's honestly not very effective. His most successful moments in those exchanges are during separation as he's backing out the trenches - which range he can simulate by boxing behind his respectable (but not always consistent) jab. 3. Learn to move his arm independently of his body. He has this terrible habit of following every other punch - especially his lead right - with both his head (which he for some reason tucks down so he can't even see...a) making him a sitting duck for a timed uppercut and b) reducing the chances of recovering from a miss or capitalizing on a hit) and his torso - and neither of them protected by his free hand. He'd get his 50% fewer times per fight if he knocked this bull**** off. He'll also generate more power on the lead turning his back foot and extending/pushing with his full arm/shoulder rather than letting his right fist sort of drift forward with four-wheel drive backed by half his bodyweight. Landing a few of these better and more easily than he has will quickly make him very confident in the punch...hopefully leading to more of it being thrown. And with fewer badly thrown punches resulting in fewer of those petrifying clinches which waste so much precious punching time (as I said, he's not a natural in-fighter), both his output and efficiency can increase. These three, while not directly related - all work as puzzle pieces IMO. If he can put these together - consistently circling guys (and always a-d-j-u-s-t-i-n-g his lead foot accordant to where the opponents' is, even if they're faster, just taking his time and taking the extra step and turning his body in anticipation) and jabbing, with right hands occasionally whistling home behind them and occasionally mixed in as leads - but never thrown in a way that sacrifices his posture: always retracting his fist and remaining ever prepared to throw again, and not dipping the whole of his bulk directly into the line of fire (therefore not creating situations where he has to grab or be grabbed if the opponent doesn't have the foresight to take a half step back and wail on him) - then he can have a great deal of success. Really "ad******g" is subject to a word filter? :-(
It would be workrate, everytime he fights its like the Chambers/Povetkin, its always he would of won if he just let his hands go more often. Divac brings up an interesting point about footwork though, when John would stand toe2toe these were Juarez's moments, but when Barrera circled him all night in the rematch as well as JMM Rocky couldnt do anything. As a manager of Juarez, I would have him settle at featherweight. String up some low key wins, and when one of the big name Superbantam weights move up and want to fight, take the oppourtunity because Juarez has the power of a lightweight.
