UPPERCUT- The Forgotten punch

Abrahams Hookercut is the business

 

Many don't even have a good jab...so why should they have a good uppercut?
Lots have a chicken wing jab or a baby hook instead of a jab.

 

In my opinion, it's the most difficult punch in boxing. It's more awkward to pull off correctly than something like a jab, straight or hook, and it leaves you frighteningly vulnerable to a counter if you time it incorrectly. Dropping your hand from your chin like that (to set it up) comes across as very unnatural to a lot of orthodox fighters, who like to keep a tight guard at all times. It also takes more difficult co-ordination between the lower and upper body -- with hooks you almost pivot instinctively, but with the uppercut you need to really lower yourself like a coiled spring and then explode upwards, twisting as you do so to get the maximum damage out of it.

Prince Naseem used to throw some wicked uppercuts in the early stages of his career -- this is mainly because, as a boxer, he used his leg strength and general flexibility to literally leap into punches the majority of the time, a tactic that a lot of normal fighters never use. The uppercut must have thus come naturally to his unorthodox approach, and one of his favourite combinations was jumping into a right uppercut and finishing with a left straight. I think he also knocked out Tom Johnson with an uppercut to the body, although I'd have to check to be sure.

I seem to remember there being a monster uppercut in Lewis/Vitali too, and I remember Tyson often using the left-hook to the body followed by an uppercut with the same hand when infighting. More fighters definitely should use it, but it's too risky to pull off often. Just one example of how it can screw you over: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YecaV-YRBEg

 

Its true you dont see many uppercuts like the one SRL landed on Roberto Duran in todays boxing era.

 

Froch throws them quite a bit.

Eubank's against Watson in the 11th round of their 2nd fight was probably the most devastating I've seen

 

2:43 mark
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Wild and primitive huh? He set it up pretty good to me here.

 

Man, that was a great uppercut from Berto -- the set-up, timing, use of body weight, placement, all there. Not a fan of the way he keeps his other hand down while doing it, but he got away with it anyway.

 

umm margarito has/had a great left uppercut. But yeah marquez has the best :L

 

I think its fair to say a peak Tyson probably had one of the best uppercuts, if not THE best, of all time! Good thing about Tyson was that either the left or right uppercut was just as good as the other!

His bolo combination, uppercut to the body followed by an uppercut to the chin, was a thing or beauty! Its perfectly demostrated in the first Bruno fight!

 

It'll hurt Cotto

 

Berto's uppercut is good but not in the same class as the "Elite" uppercuts. Somebody was correct when they said it doesn't seem to have much power behind it. He was nailing Forbes point blank with uppercuts and while it looked nice, I never thought it had much in terms of power. Certainly is a snappy looking punch though.

JMM's uppercut is a thing of legend. Vincente Escobedo (another Nacho Beristain trained dude) has a solid uppercut as well. Darchinyan's uppercut is a real nasty punch too.

 

The punch is more effective in close range, otherwise you're open for counters. Wlad's style relies on keeping within the distance of his long jab, so he can hook of it or follow-up with the steel hammer right hand. If you manage to get in, he'll likely clinch or since you're going to be shorter than him, the uppercut isn't effective because he'll have to get down to your level.

 

Jones also landed a beautiful uppercut-into-headslip against Calzaghe in the closing seconds of round 6.