I noticed that Jacobs seemed most vulnerable when he was showboating. Does showboating help a boxer? There are numerous examples where showboating has cost boxers rounds and possibly fights but they still keep doing it e.g. Bradley v Pacqiuao, Whitaker v De la hoya, Anthony Dirrell v Sakho, Alexander v Danny Garcia. What's worth noting is that neither Mayweather, Canelo nor Pacqiuao showboat unnecessarily. So what's the point? What goes through a fighter's mind in the middle of combat to start clowning around?
Ward trying the bolo punch was hilarious he was getting his head jabbed off all night, then tried a SRL
I think, that was more a mental hurdle he passed, taking Golovkin's power flush, and it not bothering him much, so he got pumped up.
Ward getting his head popped back was funny but he kept doing it arguably losing those rounds. Mayorga was awesome
Benard hopkins doing pushups in between rounds vs Pascal was great. I think it really messed with his head.
It depends. Sometimes it does help because it interrupts any sort of pattern of your rhythm and timing that your opponent might have figured out. Let's say you're jabbing with your opponent and moving around a bit and he thinks about timing you, his experienced mind is already catching all kinds of movements of yours like a computer processor... He maybe notices some pattern of jabbing and feinting and waits to counter. Then suddenly you drop your both hands down and do some dance or point to you chin and taunt him to bring it or wave your right hand a bit or something. Your opponent suddenly has to reset mentally as he has to react in a split of a second to some completely new situation. The chances are he'll freeze up a bit. Then you just come at him with say a quick double jab from a bit different angle (something that you haven't tried in the previous minute of the round) and try to take advantage of him being confused for a split of a second. I think this really works well against counter punchers. If they don't want to engage but just wait you can start doing some crazy things and try to invite them to do something or just mess up with their head and have unpredictable patterns. I don't think it works that well against pressure fighters (hence why Ward failed miserably against Kovalev with that move) unless you want to make them angry and fight recklessly. A pressure fighter would look more for clear openings than for patterns of your punching and feinting and will attack like a hawk if you drop your guard down to fool around. Also fighting is a lot about the mental aspect, if you make yourself feel like you're having a good time and keep getting away with showboating it can boost confidence.
