Very good warm up and conditioning for the legs. Won't make or break you as a fighter though. Just a very useful and convenient tool.
Its a massive and very important tool. First let me say that skipping never made any boxer great, but every great boxer was good at skipping. Skipping is all about rhythm and timing. Really good skipping, like we see with Duran, Tyson, Brian Viloria or FMJ is really hard to do. The lightness on the feet, the ability for the balls of the feet to push off in an explosive manner but also to switch pace without really fatiguing or losing balance all mirrors what happens in the ring. I think skipping for time and by that I mean a routine that includes mean with tricks, double unders, crossovers, leg kicks, bobbing or even just sprints is essential for good footwork in the ring. The rhythm that a fighter has comes a lot from this, skipping at higher skill level shows a mastery of ones body. The fighters body fits and bends around the rope not the other way round. Watch a very skilled boxer when skipping you can see and even feel their agility. Sugar Ray Robinson had a very unorthodox skipping routine, not many of the professional skipping tricks that you commonly see, he did more dancing with the rope. And I mean he was dancing to the rhythm, his balance and timing are all perfect its beautiful to watch, its like a tap-dancing routine but with a rope (go figure though, he literally became a professional dancer later on). You can tell, if he can do this with skipping rope, imagine what angles he can throw a punch from in the ring without it?
