Ricky Burns vs Miguel Vasquez: Breakdown The Keys to Battle

Miguel Vasquez: Observations of him as a fighter.

Strengths/Style/Habits

I think both guys are finding there feet as established world class fighters. If you watch some of Vasquez fights from a few years ago to recent times he was a lot more nervous then he is now but he still displays nerves early on.

Teddy Atlas said against Prescott ''Vasquez fights scared, not in a bad way''. I got what Teddy meant, Miguel often circles and looks for you to make the mistake, he reacts to your move. He reminds me of a guy in a street fight, soon as he lands he's out of there. He's eyes if you look are always focused, I think the nerves act as a positive for him. He sees a move and he reacts. He's concentrating all the time on what move you make and if he can seize on a mistake.

He uses a lot of movements, he bounces on the balls of his feet. Moves the hands and twitches the head. This is all offsetting, and lulling his man into getting flat footed and he's extremely sharp when he senses your out of position or stuck on heels.

He punches when you don't expect it as Slip mentioned, the movements aren't rigid and textbook. It's not like a guy slipping side to side. He's loose and moves as he pleases and this is why guys struggle with him.

He throws a variety of punches, often speedy and with long wirey arms and lean body he produces some sweet angles. Jab he mixes up nicely, again lulls you into a false sense of security with the paw then throws out a quick jab which scores well.

He's very slippery when you attack, if he doesn't counter he drops over to right and uses the left hand to use you to pivot off. The side to side lateral movement will be hard for most fighters and Vasquez is light on feet. He knows how to try spoil and get ref to break you on inside. He doesn't like it there, not one bit. Does land the odd crafty shot on inside as mentioned but he prefers long range.

The lateral movement is frustrating for opponents, Reason why is he gets you following in and even when he's squared up he will shoot in if he feels your not in a position to punch. He works off of your mistakes, he's a pick pocket fighter. A very smart fighter who's going to present Billy Nelson with a few headaches tactically but he's not impossible to be beaten.

Weaknesses:

His style is based on mistakes, So when you fight better fighters the mistakes become less and less. Against Quintero i watched the fight in some detail and felt Marvin troubled Vasquez with patience.

I remember Dennis Wise once remarking about Chelsea beating Man United at OT he was asked about the tactics and he said ''United are the great counter attackers, So we did what they do to teams and made them come to us then countered''. Quintero laid back in wait as Vasquez used lateral movement. Quintero fought at long to mid range and edged towards Vasquez. What he did extremely well was use a half step back, it troubled Vasquez. He couldn't gauge the range but also wasn't being presented with oppurtunities to counter.

By doing this Vasquez got edgy, nervous energy started to turn from positive to negative and he snatched a little. Quintero had some success when countering Vasquez over zealous leads. Often reaching and falling way, way out of position. Quintero's feinting also bothered Vasquez as he gave him a dose of his own medicine.

Vasquez isn't textbook, his feet often move together so when he throws he walks through at times. He's open to counters when he's reaching. It's not something i expect Ricky to constantly exploit but there's going to be times when Ricky lands.

Vasquez has a awful left hook to body it's thrown extremely wide and he lunges forward with it. It's not the best punch i've ever seen and it's a punch that he needs to work on because against world class fighters he's going to get hit and hurt.

I feel he's his slippery style hides away the lean body, I think Burns is a world class body puncher and Vasquez defence isn't great in the pocket. He often just punches/clinches to get away from hassle.

Being so squared up at times leaves you in a bad position to defend any punch and he's been dropped by a jab when pressed back.

Obviously Quintero was a lefty, but nonetheless a lot of what he did to Vasquez can be performed by a orthodox fighter like Burns. Vasquez is a disruptive fighter, never allow you to gain a rhythm. He picks your pockets, frustrates you and leaves you wondering why did i ever bother fighting you. Ricky's got to be razor sharp come March 16th.

All in all Vasquez is a Good fighter, It will take a very good fighter to beat him. Will look to break the styles down and pick a winner later on today or over week.

 

Thanks PTF :good, Enjoy bro! May go myself waiting on Froch's next opponent if no Kessler i will head over to support Ricky.

 

Thanks Jack :good.

 

Thanks mate :good. Yes it's on if you type into good Miguel Vasquez vs Marvin Quintero full fight it's the first page can't remember name.

It's a dailymotion upload :good. People said it was a boring fight but there's plenty of things that Quintero did well that night. A guy with shaky whiskers as well. Never really felt in danger against Miguel.

I don't think it was Miguel having a bad night, Just someone playing him at a different game. Miguel adapted well in the 9th and showed how good a champion he is and stopped Quintero's rhythm and won the fight from there.

 

Thanks bro :good.

Gonna get teeth into this a bit more over coming days.