Nerdcore Boxing

It was sad to watch former UFC champion Rich Franklin in the octogon with current UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva. Franklin clearly never got over the vicious beating Silva gave him in their previous title match. Watching this unfold served as an unfortunate reminder of the after effects of a good beating.

Anderson Silva’s camp, Chute Boxe, is known for their Muay Thai skills, especially their clinch. In their first fight Silva destroyed him in the Muay Thai clinch, where Franklin looked completely helpless.

Rich had the misfortune to come out of their first fight with the dreaded banana nose and required surgery and a long layoff to recover.

You could tell from this weekend’s prefight introductions that Silva was in Franklins head, and from the time the bell rung until the time he got KO’ed, Franklin didn’t look like he wanted to be in there.

Hopefully Franklin gets over this setback and gets his career back on track. I don’t see him taking back his belt, Anderson Silva has his number and is probably the best pound for pound fighter in MMA right now. But Rich could definitely be a gatekeeper to the belt and battle it out with the top contenders.

When you’re legs are fresh you have a chance. You can run, you can bend and body punch correctly, you can sit down in your punches and you can explode forward. But when your legs are dead, so are you.

I’m always in awe of how important leg strength, leg explosiveness and endurance is in boxing. It seems like I’m continually re-prioritizing my training and putting more emphasis on conditioning my legs. To be honest I usually don’t push my legs as hard as I should. I should be doing more hills, more sprints and more stairs. And I should be doing more leg related calisthenics.

Why don’t I push to the limit? Because sore legs interfere with my training. It’s really a mental barrier: I want fresh legs when I spar.

But I need to push to that next plateau. I’m not going to get KO’ed by my regular training partners, but I might in a fight if my legs are weak. So I’ve resolved to get over the fear of ruining my training with sore legs. It’s going to be a major dose of sprints, hills and stairs for me.

I think body punching is probably the most feared skill in boxing. This notion often seems counterintuitive to beginners,  everyone is afraid of that big shot to the head. But I think most experienced boxers would tell you that they cringe at the idea of facing a good body puncher.

After you face one it becomes obvious why they are so dangerous. They stretch your defenses, they dish out a lot pain and they play on your fear of fatigue.

Body punches are a multi-headed threat:

• Body punches can cause KOs. Take a good shot to the kidneys or liver and you’ll go down paralyzed. I’ve personally seen a guy take 2 minutes to get up after taking a left hook to the liver.
• They effect your breathing, especially if your ribs get busted or badly bruised.
• They sap your strength. Nothing is more frightening than gassing against a fresh boxer.
• Head punches are alarming, they bring about blackouts or unconciousness, but they don’t cause overwhelming pain. Body punches on the other hand can really hurt.
• Body punches stretch your defenses. Defending the body often weakens the defense of the head.
• Body punching is a rare skill, so most boxers don’t get a lot of practice defending against this attack.

I’d say I’m a novice level body puncher, but I’ve gotten on the road to becoming a good body puncher. So far the skills I’ve developed have been very welcomed in my game.

Unsanctioned Events

Unsanctioned events are not “sanctioned” or regulated by any of the governing bodies. There are a number of different types of unsanctioned events.

“Smokers” are events for inexperienced boxers to obtain ring experience before getting sanctioned. These are usually put on by boxing gyms to groom new fighters before their official amateur careers.

Since so many MMA schools have boxing and kickboxing programs, these days you’ll find mixed shows (kind of like smokers) with unsanctioned boxing, kickboxing and MMA all on the same card.

A relatively new type of event is “White Collar Boxing.” These are fights setup for professionals or white collar folks that want to mix it up with their peers.

There are also specialized boxing events for different types of organizations such as high schools, colleges, fraternities, police, firemen or military.

Toughman competitions are unsanctioned events that pay audience members to fight in the ring. Because they are paid, it makes the fighters into instant “professionals” and has the side effect of thereafter making them ineligible to compete in amateur boxing.

While I’m sure there are some tough guys in Toughman competitions, generally they are not thought of very well in the boxing world. Toughman pay is far too low for professional boxers, and an aspiring amateur wouldn’t take $100 (or whatever it is) just so they could step in the ring and destroy their amateur career.

Sanctioned Fights

These go on your official amateur record and are generally considered more prestigious than fighting in the unsanctioned events.

Amateur boxing has a number of divisions:

Divisions By Age - Generally fighters are matched up with opponents near their own age. For instance the masters division is for fighters 34 and older. There are also groupings for underage boxers.

Divisions By Experience - Sub Novice is where you start out as an official amateur boxer. Once you have over 4 fights you graduate into the next grouping. The Open Class is for fighters with over 10 fights and is 4 rounds vs. 3.

Tournaments

For registered amateur boxers with official records there are a number of tournaments: Junior Olympics, Olympic Qualifiers, Golden Gloves, Bronze Gloves, etc.

I have a fight scheduled in 4 weeks. But excitement is turning to frustration. My left rotator cuff (shoulder) has been killing me for the last few weeks and isn’t getting better. It’s not the kind of thing that would keep me from fighting, but it’s effecting the snappiness of my jab. I’m training hard and doing my roadwork, but I’m feeling exhausted. Dare I say I’m feeling old?

There was a bright spot the other day when I went to another gym and sparred with an open class fighter (10+ sanctioned amateur fights) and easily handled him. But then tonight I got in with a heavyweight that was 10x as mobile as me, despite a 30-40 lbs weight difference, and I could do seemingly nothing with him.

Worse thing is this guy has the style of boxing I hate the most, and have still not learned to face. He fights off his back leg from a philly shell. I have to penetrate deep into his defenses to land all the while he counter punches and rolls off punches. But this guy is even worse, he changes leads thus screwing with my entry angles and he’s all over the place.

What makes a boxer tough enough for the sport? And can this toughness be built up over time, or does it have to be there from the start?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the last few days after seeing the all too common ritual of throwing a new guy in with a bigger/better boxer to take his first real beating (note this wasn’t at my gym). In this instance I saw a once proud and swaggering teenager break down and quit. Did that mean this kid will never be boxing material?

If his body can be built up to take punishment, why can’t his mind? Personally I think the boxing mind can be conditioned somewhat gradually, just like the body. But I guess a boxer’s will is the big variable that trainers want to size up. Thus the school of hard knocks maintains its popularity.

Sparring is for learning, for working on things. It’s for getting ready for a fight, but it’s not a fight. Don’t try and knock out your sparring partners.

You can still spar hard and not try to KO people. If you actually do KO one of your partners, you’re probably going to really hurt his chin (chin means one’s ability to take a punch without getting wobbled). And since your partner likely isn’t trying to KO you, don’t you think it’s kind of lame to ambush him during practice?

At every gym I’ve ever trained at, there is always that one guy that’s trying to hurt his sparring partners. If you happen to be that guy, you should know, people talk. And in your case they probably have nothing nice to say.

This post is a continuation of Boxing Tips: Sparring Comfortably, Part II.

As I developed in the ring beyond basic defense, some endurance and jab, I recall encountering these stages:

Stage 4: Getting Distance Right

Really to develop a decent jab you’ll have already developed some sense of distance. But now, even though you can find your opponents head with the jab, you might find you fall into the trap of reaching. Reaching refers to starting to throw the punch little too soon during the step forward. If you have this bad habit you’re probably wondering why good boxers always seem to slip your jab.

But even when your jab develops there is still a lot to learn about distance. I found getting distance right has a lot to do with getting used to contact. When you get closer to your opponent things get dangerous. Yet you need to get into range and come forward to land.

Watching a new boxer’s cross is often amusing, it’s kind of a girly pawing punch. But most people go through this stage so don’t be embarrassed. Partly it’s because the boxer is simply afraid to come forward.

Stage 5: Seeing Punches Coming & Slipping

It’s the punch you don’t see that hurts you. If you saw it coming it probably didn’t land cleanly. You need to gain the guts to watch the punch as it flies into your mug. You especially want to watch the big punches. If you close your eyes or turn your head then you’ll have little chance of slipping or rolling.

A trainer once said to me, “If you’re going to get hit, you might as well see the punch coming.” Following this advice dramatically improved my defense.

Stage 6: Telegraphing

I found when I first started to develop my cross, hook and uppercuts, I’d telegraph them, (meaning signal that I was about to throw). I’d cock my right, or start the punch by raising my elbow. Before my hook I’d pause to shift my weight to the left.

Ask your sparring partners why they can always slip a particular punch, they might be able to help isolate the problem.

Stage 7: Building Your Arsenal

Learning to regularly and cleanly land more than a jab against a good boxer can take some time. But by this time I had developed some comfort and the fun really began.