Opinion of the Week

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is strong, has very good power, very good balance, and proved that he can handle a slick southpaw like Austin Trout. What he lacks, however, is a consistent jab, body shots, and the ability to cut off the ring. If Canelo can gain those skills soon, he will be a long-term champion. If not, he will go the way of other hard-punchers who lacked basic skills, such as Nigel Benn, Razor Ruddock, and Omar Sheika.

The Fear Of Losing

The fear of losing is the worst opponent a fighter can ever meet.  It's the only opponent a fighter should ever avoid. I’m not talking about nervousness, anxiety, or weak knees when taking on a tough opponent at a big event. No, that’s normal and in some ways will always be with the fighter. The fear of losing, however, can take away a fighter's will, potential, and promise and, more often than not, he'll never get it back.

A really good boxer I trained with, let’s call him Perry Greene, had a ton of potential but let the fear of losing get the best of him.  In the gym, in the amateurs, and in his early pro fights, he was the one to watch. As he progressed through the pro ranks, however, he started to hold back his talent. You couldn’t really put your finger on it—he was throwing a lot of jabs, power punches, good movement, but there was something missing. Something was wrong. As soon as he got more attention from the press and fans, whatever it was that was missing, was gone for good. Fighters that he should beat easily, he would struggle with. Fighters that he would hurt badly, he would let survive. What was going on? Why wouldn’t he finish off and beat easier competition? Was he afraid that with showing his true potential people would expect more? In fact, people did expect more from him in each fight.

His father may have been the main issue. His father was a perfectionist who expected nothing but excellence from his son. Being very good wasn’t enough. Perry had to be perfect. After a particular disappointing win at the Great Western Forum, Perry’s father was giving him a verbal beat-down for not knocking his opponent out in the four-round fight. I even saw his father actually smack his son outside of the gym once or twice for not dominating a sparring partner. The father’s arguments with Perry's trainer were a common occurrence.

Now I’m no psychiatrist, but seemed to me that Perry was afraid – terrified even, of disappointing his father. Little by little that fear started overtaking him, and instead of motivating him, started to take away his will, talent, and potential. It’s been said that a little fear is a good thing—it keeps you sharp, focused, and ready. But if a fighter is afraid of losing, he has already lost. Fighting like that is like playing poker with scared money. It’s just a matter of time before you lose all your chips.

Brandon Rios vs. Alvarado: Where Are the Skills?

Was That Boxing?

What a disappointing boxing match between Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado. Actually glorified street fight would be a better term for what I saw. Disappointing because of the lack of basic skills the two fighters, especially Rios, displayed. Not only are fights like that bad for the boxers but also bad for the sport of boxing.

Lack of Basic Skills

Boxing is not boxing until the fighters exhibit basic skills; otherwise it’s just a good street fight. Except for the occasional waving of his hands in front of his face, Rios does not know how to block or parry a punch, much less throw a counter. Alvarado is barely any better. And although Rios shows he can actually throw a decent jab, he rarely let it go. Round 9, for example, showed Rios throwing only 15 jabs (that’s 5 a minute), when he needed the jab to get inside Alvarado’s reach and close the distance. Rios' power punches would have landed more often after measuring Alvarado with the jab, keeping him unsteady and off balance. The best power punchers have always used their jab. Look at how Tyson used to get inside the reach of much taller opponents, or how Julian Jackson would measure his victims with jabs before knocking them out cold, and how Hearns would flick about his skinny left arm, covering his opponents’ eyes until that right hand put them to sleep .  

The punch stats also showed that Rios and Alvarado averaged only 5 body punches a round. The commentators were praising their toughness but what they fail to realize is that if either of the fighters worked the body early on, the fight would not have gone past 8 rounds. Rios never even bothered to cut off the ring to be  in a position to work Alvarado's body. Chavez Sr. (the real champion) worked the body of his opponents for the first three rounds, allowing him to stop 87 opponents, most notably when he knocked out Meldrick Taylor with only 2 seconds left. (Taylor lost nearly a pint of blood and was never the same again.)  Alvarado is given credit for using his legs and jab more often than in the first fight. That’s like giving credit to a basketball player that actually makes more free throws than he misses.

No Help To The Sport

Both fighters, but especially Brandon Rios, is doing nothing to improve the sport of boxing. Sure the fight can be called exciting, but so was the fight between SpongeBob and two ladies.
Boxing like that doesn’t show any real skills and gives the impression that boxing is just a matter of being tough. When that happens people tune out to see other tough sports, such as cage fighting, beach volleyball, and roller derby. Not only is fighting without basic skills bad for boxing, but also bad for the fighters’ health. As tough as Rios is, he will not be able to take those kinds of punches for too long. His matches along with the sparring which I assume is equally as defense-less, will take away any kind of career longevity and most probably cause health issues starting in his thirties. Weird thing is that Rios was a very accomplished amateur and was even an alternate on the Olympic team. No reason why he should be a head-first fighter. You can be exciting and have basic boxing skills. Just ask Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., Julian Jackson, James Toney, JM Marquez, Sergio Martinez, and Nonito Donaire. Just don't ask Spongebob.

Boxing Experts Fail

Boxing Fans,

So sad that even so-called boxing experts get caught up in the hype of a big fight. Bernard Hopkins and Teddy Atlas , two boxing “experts” that I respect very much for their knowledge, have recently disappointed me with their pre-fight analysis of the Pacquiao-Hatton fight. Although an expert on the basics of boxing, Bernard Hopkins' analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of both fighters had some truth to it, although he picked Hatton to win. Teddy Atlas, however, had both the analysis and pick dead wrong, even though he usually calls fights correctly and gives a thorough analysis before each fight on Friday Night Fights. So why did they get it so wrong?

Bernard Hopkins knew how to analyze the strengths and weakness of Pacquiao and Hatton but still picked the wrong fighter. In his pre-fight analysis he described the match-up as one between a sharp-shooting (correct) counter-punching (correct) strong (correct) Pacquiao and the fast-handed (sort of) newly-trained (wrong) Hatton. He even mentioned that trying to bully Pacquiao would be the wrong move and that Hatton would have to time Pacquiao and have to come in from angles and have to listen to his trainer to learn or re-learn new skills. Those are a lot of have-to's for someone who has not done that in the last twenty years of his boxing career. Maybe Hopkins thought that an old dog can learn new tricks?

Unlike Hopkins, Teddy Atlas had the analysis totally wrong and picked the wrong guy as well. Teddy Atlas came up with the absurd idea that Pacquiao’s mojo had been all but spent in defeating de la Hoya. According to Teddy, Pacquiao’s win over de la Hoya only hurt Pacquiao by not testing himself and having spent all his mental energy preparing for that fight, the biggest yet of his career. Having won the fight, Teddy believed, Pacquiao was set for life career-wise and that there would be no more greatness from Pacquiao. Teddy explained that Pacquiao was not hungry anymore and would be challenged mightily by the British banger and lose a decision. Not once did he mention how or why Hatton would win inside the ring, but left his analysis for this quasi-pseudo scientific mojo nonsense that falls far outside of any rational basic-boxing analysis. He sounded like one of those so-called political expert talking heads that believed with such certainty that McCain was going to wipe the floor with Obama in the elections. Oh well, all hail the Chief and the Filipino master fighter!

I was going to finish off this post by explaining how these two “experts” should have analyzed this fight, but I’ll leave that up to you, the reader, after you've read my previous post on “Styles Make Fights,” part 1 and 2. In the meantime, if your the gambling type, put your money on the boxers that Teddy Atlas and Bernard Hopkins think will lose.

A Consistent Approach to Boxing

Boxing Friends,

Making the most of your boxing career takes a consistent approach to improvement of skills and consistency in weight management. A consistent approach on improving your skills, where there is always room for improvement, demands a return to basics. A consistent approach in weight management requires a change in lifestyle and eating habits so that there will be focus on skill improvement, instead of weight loss, and less wear and tear on the body over time. A consistent approach results in a longer, more successful career and injury avoidance, as demonstrated in the long and successful careers of many fighters.

A continuous improvement of skill is necessary because you are either improving or losing. Despite many boxers that have stopped improving, there is always room to improve the skills one has whether becoming faster, stronger, or more technically skilled. Improvement depends upon a return to the basics of boxing, such as balance, jab training, and defense, as well as improving upon that special skill (killer body attack, big right hand, etc.) that sets them apart from others. Fighters, such as Bernard Hopkins, that focus on improving throughout their careers rather than sitting on their accomplishments, enjoy the results of their behavior. Hopkins could have trained just enough to get him through fights and many would have said that is to be expected of an older fighter. Hopkins, however, has taken consistency to a whole new level, fighting at top form against the best in his division, while former foe Roy Jones hit the wall years ago.

Consistent weight management sets the boxer up for a longer, more successful career. Making weight management a lifestyle change, such as eating properly (more whole foods and greens) and keeping fit throughout the year, as opposed to dieting and binging, helps to keep weight under control and helps avoid the yo-yo weight gain and loss that damages the body. Moreover, the boxer that controls his weight and begins a lifestyle change can then focus his training on improving his skills, endurance, and power.

The results of a consistent approach in skill improvement and weight management add to the success of the boxer's career. The most obvious benefit is length and quality of the boxer’s career by staying ahead of same-age fighters and keeping even with or better than up-and-coming fighters. Also, the boxer experiences lesser injuries due to better health, sharper skills, and stronger body. Two prime examples of the benefits of a consistent approach in skill improvement and weight management are Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., and one of my favorites, the underestimated Harold Brazier.

Julio Cesar Chavez continuously improved his skills and was always in shape, ready to fight. Chavez ended his 22-year career with a record of 107-6-2 with 86 KOs. Throughout his career he was always sharp with his overhand right hands, body attack, and supreme defense that does not come from jumping rope but from dedication to skill, focusing on the basics, and a consistent approach to weight management. Only when age finally caught up with him –and perhaps the rumored hard partying—did his skills begin to diminish. For the first 12 years of his career no more than four months passed between fights, in contrast to the one fight a year of the pampered paper champions nowadays. Then from the age of 33 to 43 he fought on average every six months for the next ten years. That activity plus the continued constant activity fighting and training kept Julio Cesar Chavez in shape and sharp for each and every fight and made him the legend he has become.

Harold Brazier is an even better, though lesser known, example of consistency. After becoming a professional at the age of 32, he fought for the next seventeen years fighting former, future, and wannabe champions, ending his career with a record of 105-18-1 with 64 KOs, averaging almost three fights every two months throughout his career. When most boxers were ending their careers Harold Brazier was starting his, usually keeping a full-time job his whole career! His commitment to improving his skills, focus on the basics of boxing, and constant activity kept him as a top contender for several years fighting Vince Phillips, Pernel l Whitaker, Livingstone Bramble, Juan Martin Coggi, and Roger Mayweather, among many others. A strong clue for his longevity and success is that his first fight was at 138 lbs. and his last, 17 years later, was at 148.

Old School Balance

Friends of Boxing,

Power. Speed. Combos. Jabs. People have their ideas of what the key to boxing is. The one factor, however, that is hardly ever mentioned is balance. Balance, though, is not only the key to boxing -- it is the house. With balance, a boxer, like the early Tyson, will have the leverage in his punches and resulting power. A great offense, as Marvelous Marvin Hagler demonstrated, comes from balance and results in the ability to be ever-ready and in position to connect, even against the difficult southpaw. A super defense, JC Chavez style, is born from great balance and results in smooth side-to-side head movement and advanced footwork and counterpunching. All this, however, must begin with basic training and continually monitoring of improvement by the trainer.

Balance creates leverage which creates power. Leverage exists before the punch is thrown and not while the punch is thrown as so many teach. A punch with balance and leverage arrives with the speed, power, and snap so many trainers talk about and so many boxers wish they had. The early Mike Tyson is an example of how balance creates the leverage for awesome power.

Not only does balance form power but also the best offense. The balanced boxer will always be in position to throw a punch or combination regardless of whether moving forward, laterally, backwards, and even when hurt; and especially against a southpaw. The trouble with fighting a southpaw is not the lack of positioning to land punches (the straight right or the left hook over the southpaw's right, etc) but becoming unbalanced, and the resulting inability to land the right hand/left hook and avoid the southpaw's straight left. Hagler demonstrated superb balance and offense against all style of boxers he fought, whether the opponent was a southpaw or even when he, himself, turned southpaw.

Power, leverage, and offense won't mean too much without the expert defense that balance provides. The balanced boxer moves the upper body smoothly side-to-side in avoiding punches and counters with leverage. Then comes the footwork to position oneself for the best angles, power, and to avoid the return punch. JC Chavez Sr., king of defense for almost all of his career, landed his wicked perfect left hook to the body and avoided attacks from long, medium, and short range then continually countered with a right hand over his opponent's jab because of balance.

To end, or better yet, to start, the focus on balance should begin on the first day of training and end only when the boxer retires. If the fighter has not gone through intensive balance training, the trainer must pause all other things and get back to the basics of balance. This training includes making proper stance a habit, drilling on all areas of footwork, and learning to keep centered at all times, whether on offense or defense.

Other balance champions to learn from:
Marvin Hagler
Ricardo "Finito" Lopez
JM Marquez
Reggie Johnson
Bernard Hopkins
Azumah Nelson

Styles Make Fights part 2

Dear Boxing Fans,

Training for a fight is where the focus on styles must take place. A boxer and his trainer must focus on the type of style that the upcoming opponent has and adjust their own style to be most effective. This adjustment must take place in the gym and be hammered into the boxer so that it is second nature. This is in contrast to the way many boxers train in that they either focus on a strategy (eg. working the body more, using the double jab, etc.) or attempt to change their own style 180 degrees, with disastrous and comical results (see de la Hoya v. Trinidad rds. 9-12 or Tyson v. anybody with talent in the last 15 years).

Styles must be adjusted and not changed. All styles have their benefit and their weak points. The key is to understand the opponent's weak point and deliver. The key is also to understand one's weak point and then create a strategy to overcome that deficit. Had de la Hoya understood that his weak point as a puncher (almost a boxer-puncher) is a lack of upperbody movement and adjusted for that, he would not have been hit so cleanly and so often by a boxer-puncher like Mosley --and maybe, just maybe, would have pulled a win in that second fight.

In preparing for a fight, the boxer and trainer must look to his opponent's record and evaluate to whom the opponent has lost and what style that opponent had trouble with. With video all over the web, that is much easier than before. The boxer and trainer must then adjust his style -- more upper body movement, more jabs, early body work, etc. -- to be most effective. Only adjustments, and not style changes, truly work as the body's mechanics tend to change only a little at a time and revert back to what it knows and has done if too large of a change is attempted.

Styles Make Fights Part 1

Dear Friends of Boxing,

There is an adage in boxing that styles make fights. What does this mean? The style that each boxer has in a fight determines the tempo, activity, and even the probable outcome. I use the word "probable" for two reasons. As in any rule, there are exceptions to that rule. Secondly, there are several factors which must come into play before the rule has any consistency to it. I'll get to these factors below.

To better explain styles, I'll use some examples. Winky Wright is the prototypical boxer. Focusing more on defense and counter-punching, with a good jab and good foot movement, boxers can put you asleep, not with their power but with their boring style. Shane Mosley is the prototypical power-boxer. Focusing on power punches, this boxer also has the foot work and speed to get the respect of his opponent and often knock the opponent out in an exciting way. Oscar de la Hoya is the prototypical puncher. Focusing on the power and quality of their power shots these boxers often have less than average defense and basic footwork. Jorge Arce is the typical brawler. Whether or not they have the power or defense to do so, these boxers get in close and bang away until either they or their opponent falls. Obviously there is more to the analysis, but you get the point.

So what style wins over another? For a consistent answer --that is, one that makes sense over time, several factors must first be met. Age and experience must be basically equal (experience more important) as well as activity and preparation. Basically if you are too young or old or inexperienced or inactive or ill-prepared relative to your opponent, styles don't mean as much.

Part 2 of this post to follow soon. Add this blog to your reader.