What little moves & tricks have you seen recent ATG fighters take from older ATG's?

As the thread title asks: What counters, punches, feints, combinations, twitches, habits, and maneuvers do you think you've seen the more recent batch of ATG fighters (late 80's, 90's, and 2000's) take from older ones? I'll start:

1. When Mosley had a good jab (yes noobs, it happened), the way he would throw it consecutively was very reminiscent of the way Sugar Ray Robinson would throw his. The thing that stands out to me most about Sugar Ray was his feet; the way he was able to leap into a lead left hook on balance with full torque, and fluidly step in and out with his shots. He also gave an angle with his head tilted inwards, chin down, as he popped the jab with his shoulder protecting him. In his prime, Mosley's double and triple jab looked quite similar; head tilted down, feet stepping forwards or backwards every time he popped it out. I also remember a countdown video or something like it where he did drills stepping and jabbing from one corner of the ring to another. As a youngster, I think he was given the name Sugar more because of this trait than simply his speed (lots of fighters are quick and hit hard; few get Ray's blessing in person for the name.) There's no doubt he watched and tried to emulate the widely considered GOAT.

2. Juan Manuel Marquez has a few habits I consider (or guess) to be inherited from his watching of other fighters.Chavez and Duran, two of the greatest Latin fighters in history and some of the best inside fighters of all time, had particular ways of countering by slipping towards the inside while pivoting to land punches around the guard, as opposed to slipping towards the outside and then using the motion to thrust back into a counter (more of a two-part process). Both were aces at slipping a jab inwards while landing an overhand right that the opponent doesn't always see coming, and from a defensive standpoint, Marquez often employs similar tactics acting as a kind of counter-punching inverse of their styles, again particularly with the overhand right. In the 9th round against Diaz, he stuns Diaz on the way to dropping him with a very Duran-esque overhand right counter.

Another similarity I never thought of before I saw Marquez emulate the man was with Muhammad Ali, when doing a translation in which he broke down his style. The Nacho Beristain school of thought comes from his experience training with Mexicans, Cubans, and Eastern Europeans-hence the combination body-punching, lateral ring generalship, and balanced stance behind a peekaboo guard employed by JMM, Rafa Marquez, Daniel Zaragoza, and Ricardo Lopez (to varying degrees between each of them, of course.) But one thing I find a bit more unique to Juan Manuel is his use of parrying. Many times, despite his decent but not exceptional reach, JMM will shuffle backwards and to the side while knocking his opponents punches forcefully down and away. When seeing Marquez claim Ali as a favorite and bounce around with his arms outstretched and rambling on about his multi-punch combinations, I couldn't help but think that Marquez picked up moving while parrying so well from the great Cassius Clay.

3. Bernard Hopkins has conventional technique, but a pretty unconventional use of that technique. He's a complete fighter we'd likely characterize as a boxer, but there are times we want to call him one of the best infighters and counter-punchers in the game all at once. He has a good reach, but never used it to plainly stick a jab and fire 1-2's while bouncing around. Hopkins thrived off of making fighters follow him, reach, and then exploiting those mistakes by springing the traps, jumping in and countering his way onto the inside of a clinch from out of range, before circling out. Andre Ward employs very similar ambush tactics. Although Bernard was more methodical and has shown more dimension, Ward's athleticism has taken Hopkins's fundamentals and fixed them into the hybrid style he dominates with today. Countering while moving quickly forward before circling out isn't really seen nowadays aside from those two. Watch Hopkins throw a right hand, anticipate and slip a left hook, and throw a right hand again over it immediately against Taylor in the mid rounds of the rematch; then look and see Ward employs the same baits and follow ups in his high-mobility fights against Froch and Kesslar.

 

Keep em comin!

 

You think so? In my view, Tyson used a lot more side to side slipping standing straight up behind a peekaboo guard and bobbed & weaved with his knees, whereas Frazier leaned into a crouch and preferred to focus on moving his waist.

 

Look forward to your post :good

And for the record, I realize Ward is nowhere near an ATG (yet!) but I thought I'd include him for the sake of relevance to the stylistic similarities with BHop.

 

I remember this step-switching and being very impressed...any old timer who used to do this often? Donaire and the Dempsey Roll come to mind...

 

:good