The Cardinal Sins of Boxing by Doug Ward

[Stickgrappler]

My thanks to Leo Daher for posting this elsewhere and I am copying and pasting from http://www.titleboxing.com/news/the-cardinal-sins-of-boxing/ to here:

The Cardinal Sins of Boxing

by Doug Ward on October 9, 2012


There are some very specific things you have to do inside the ring to be a good boxer, but there are also some very specific things you should NEVER do in the ring in order to be a good boxer. Of course, there are the basic rules, like…don’t drop your jab when you bring it back, don’t step with the wrong foot first, be sure to keep your hands up and so on. Aside from some of these types of common, basic mistakes, there are a few more advanced ones that should be taken very seriously. Consider them the Cardinal Sins of Boxing.

Sin #1. Never, ever drop your hands when you are coming out of an exchange. If you step back with your hands down, you are almost always guaranteed to get clipped. Instances where this has come back to bite a fighter are endless, but for a perfect example, type Mike McCallum versus Donald Curry into YouTube and, at least, watch the fifth round to see the last, biggest mistake a once-promising fighter ever made.

Sin #2. Never step straight back when you go on the defensive. Step side to side, give your opponent angles and force them to adjust their attack to find you. When you move straight back, you are staying right in the line of fire and right on the end of your opponents punches…the last place you want to be.

Sin #3. When you have just ducked and slipped a combination and are coming up from a crouched position, come up throwing. Don’t just expect your opponent to stop throwing and let you stand up to engage again. Transform it into an offensive move by immediately retaliating from your defensive position and turning the tide back in your favor.

Sin #4. Never reach out to block punches. Make your opponent come to you. Make him commit to the punch, commit his weight and then counter. When you meet the punch half way, you make your opponent’s job too easy. Again, if you want a perfect example, look at the fourth round of Lennox Lewis versus Hasim Rahman on YouTube. The third round says it all.

Sin #5. Don’t lead from the outside with an inside punch. The uppercut is an inside punch. The hook is an inside punch. Floyd Mayweather has a slick and effective left hook lead, but only because he uses it correctly. He uses it sparingly, he uses it selectively, but he is also Floyd Mayweather and there’s only one of those. As a general rule…don’t do it. Don’t lead with a hook or with an uppercut. They are outside punches and take too long to reach their mark. Instead, properly set them up with lead punches and sprinkle them into your combinations to make them most effective.

Once you’re inside the ring, there are a myriad of mistakes you can make. Any one of them may be minor and have little or no effect on the outcome of the fight. Then, there is the other kind. It is major. It can be dramatic and it can work against you, sometimes spelling your defeat. No mistakes are good, but breaking any one of the Cardinal Sins of Boxing and you’re opening yourself up to making a major faux pas. It is usually unforgiving with bad consequences and you won’t get away with it very often. Confess to yourself or to your coach that you will never be tempted to do any of these. There is no good in them. Now go and sin no more.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Interesting. What does this mean?

Sin #5. Don’t lead from the outside with an inside punch. The uppercut is an inside punch. The hook is an inside punch. Floyd Mayweather has a slick and effective left hook lead, but only because he uses it correctly. He uses it sparingly, he uses it selectively, but he is also Floyd Mayweather and there’s only one of those. As a general rule…don’t do it. Don’t lead with a hook or with an uppercut. They are outside punches and take too long to reach their mark. Instead, properly set them up with lead punches and sprinkle them into your combinations to make them most effective.


Don't lead with a hook or an uppercut - I get that. But first it says don't do it because they are inside punches, then it says don't do it because they are outside punches. What?

 

[Stickgrappler]

good catch... i read through it originally and read it as "inside punches" when it explicitly reads "outside"

think it's a typo -- as the point Doug Ward is trying to make is don't lead with inside punches

 

[Bill Mattocks]

good catch... i read through it originally and read it as "inside punches" when it explicitly reads "outside"

think it's a typo -- as the point Doug Ward is trying to make is don't lead with inside punches

Then it makes sense if it is a typo. I agree, don't lead with an inside punch. You've got to close distance, open them up, and then apply your inside technique. I'm no expert, that's just what it seems to me.

 

[Gnarlie]

I liked reading this, thanks stickgrappler and Bill. It's interesting that the same principles almost directly apply to kicking!

Gnarlie

 

[Tgace]

Typo...good advice there. Having duffed at boxing I can attest to the difficulty of sidesteping under pressure....when you are new it seems hard to break out of the railroad tracks.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Very very good advice, feel like this should be made into a sign and posted in every boxing gym somewhere

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Just last night in the dojo, we were sparring and I had a partner who threw a one-two punch and then threw a nice roundhouse kick at gut level. I saw what he did but wasn't sure how to deal with it; my hands were up dealing with the punches and he caught me with the kick. Totally forgot about the stepping back on an angle thing.

Our sensei came over and showed me the defense for this attack. From a standard kamae or what looks like a normal boxing stance with a left lead, he blocked the one-two, and then he stepped back and away or outside with his right leg. Then he teetered over slightly and side-kicked straight up. This basically made my partner run into sensei's kick with his groin, stopping the roundhouse kick. It was pretty.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

hmm interesting..Normally I would just jump/step back out of range of all three rather than blocking the punches and countering the kick with my own kick, and I get screwed if I'm in the corner. Going to have to try that next time I get trapped

 

[Bill Mattocks]

hmm interesting..Normally I would just jump/step back out of range of all three rather than blocking the punches and countering the kick with my own kick, and I get screwed if I'm in the corner. Going to have to try that next time I get trapped

For us, since a block is a punch, we look for opportunities to engage, so if we're blocking a one-two, we try to see if we can bounce off a block into the guy's noggin or something along those lines. Any chance to turn the defense into an attack, or to turn the guy's body, off-balance him, etc. In my case, my partner was bigger, stronger, and faster than me (good to spar against a guy who is better but doesn't totally outclass you, you learn a lot fast). His punches were hard for me to block, and I didn't get much traction of of them, and no way I was going to turn him or redirect his punches at my current level of ability. Now, catching a kick is a fine idea if you can, and I often can; I love to jam kicks and knock opponents on their keisters; I tend to wade in and fight in close with everybody, to crowd them and back them up; I'm very aggressive. But with my partner last night, he's too big and too strong. We both fight the same way, so I can't crowd him, can't back him up, he just hammers me if I try it. And his roundhouse kicks; well, you don't catch one of those to the gut unless you want to also break your arm. So getting out of the way or punching a hard block down is the only way I can deal with his roundhouse kicks. And I can't punch down a hard block if I'm up high dealing with his punches. It's a wicked combination he's got.

Sensei pointed out that normally when a fighter thinks about retreating on the 45 degree angle, he's thinking about stepping right and back, or forward and left if he's more or less squared up and right-handed and/or leading with the left. This is fine, but when the roundhouse kick is coming from the opponent's rear leg (in this case, my partner's left leg), then stepping right and back could take you right into it if he extends or is longer than you think, and moving forward and left puts you in his grill, where he's already been punching you from. If you move your rear (right) leg the OTHER way, you have turned your body out of the way of his incoming kick, and at the same time, given you a stable base to launch the side kick with your left leg right into his groin / midsection. His momentum with the kick carries him right into it. It was brilliant when I saw it done.

I hope I'm doing justice to the description, and not messing it up. I'm not my sensei, obviously, and I can't claim expertise with this. But I will be working it.

This partner of mine is a guy I just love to spar with; even though sometimes he hurts me because he's so strong. I have to be on my game with him, and I have to think fast and move in different ways than I am used to. I am totally used to being the aggressor when sparring (except with my sensei, who totally dominate me, but also totally outclass me) that I don't have much experience with strategic retreat, looking for new angles, etc. I'm used to just wading in and boom-boom. I try to draw kicks so I can jam them and knock my partner down; not with this guy. His kicks HURT.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I may just have to try this thanks!