I’ve been pondering for a long while what kind of boxers make me nervous. I spent a lot of time looking back on times I felt apprehensive about getting in the ring with certain guys. And I spent some time asking other boxers what makes them nervous.

Between myself and the boxers I talked to we came up with a lot of good answers and good attributes that make a boxer frightening. Many of these are things I’ll focus on more in my training. But in the end I was quite surprised at the attribute that came up the most.

What attribute most frightens you in an opponent? The survey says????

Hand Speed?

While hand speed is important, in my opinion, it’s slightly overrated. A good boxer doesn’t stand in punching range for long anyway. Almost no one I talked to singled out hand speed either.

Mobility?

While I don’t worry about hand speed too much, foot speed is a big deal. A guy that’s always out of reach and can strike at will is dangerous. Still it ranks in the relative middle of my “scary list” as well as in the lists of most of the boxers I polled.

Body Punchers?

Now we’re talking! Lots of people singled out body punchers. It’s hard to defend high and low. Body punches hurt and can lead to TKO’s. Plus the thought of body blows stealing one’s endurance is alarming.

Power Punchers?

Power punchers are frightening. A guy with true one-punch KO power has to be THE scariest opponent. But how many guys out there have that kind of KO power? Not many. I guess this is the reason it wasn’t the top answer.

The Survey Says!?!?

What was the top answer? Well, as one boxer put it, “I’m afraid of the guy I can’t hit.”

When one boxer mentioned only defense in his, “scary list,” I realised that defense was on everyone’s list. I also realized that my 3 most intimidating sparring partners had only great defense in common.

It makes sense when considering my own attitudes and motivations. I can take the risk of possibly going down, I can take getting beat up, I can take gassing, but if I can’t land punches I’m not in the fight. There’s nothing worse than when you’ve gotten to the bottom of your bag of tricks and nothing is working. Great defense absolutely demoralizes opponents.

I’ve always valued defense, but after this epiphany I’m doubling my efforts. Back to working on my defensive footwork!

Fighters displaying an advanced knowledge of the sweet science are referred to as boxers, as apposed to brawlers or punchers. When an analyst refers to a guy as a brawler or puncher, it can actually be mildly derogatory. Punchers generally aren’t as skilled in boxing and attempt to make up for it by going for knockouts.

One thing that can be frustrating about boxing is that it’s heavily attribute based. A puncher that can take a punch can go far in boxing without gaining a great knowledge of boxing.

There is an art and science to boxing that’s based on theory, practice and technique. Make no mistake a boxer schooled in the sweet science can definitely defeat an unskilled puncher.

When the great Floyd Mayweather Jr. moved up in weight he lost his ability to KO the bigger opponents, but he dominated them nonetheless. In the absence of knockouts many fight fans found his dazzling defenses lacking, but I loved watching his genius.

Fortunately for those lacking natural punching power, you can make up for it. KO’s often come from an accumulation of punches, not one big haymaker. Sneaky punches, or punches buried in combinations can also be deadly. Sugar Ray Robinson, the greatest pound-for-pound boxer ever, KO’ed more than his share of opponents. He was quoted as saying, “I was really a weak puncher. It’s the punch you don’t see that hurts you.”

So no matter what your physical attributes, work on your punch accuracy and landing combinations!

I’m still being frustrated by one particular style of boxer: guys that box out of the philly shell (lead hand low, slightly sideways stance), fighting off their back foot, swaying back and rolling my punches while counter punching. One of my trainers is very adept at this style.

When sparring against this style, I circle away from the power throwing jabs and following up with straight rights when I can. Because they fight off the rear foot and sway back I have to double and triple up on my jabs to reach him while he sways back. During this jab fest his left hook is often used to counter me so I have to keep my rear hand up and stay upright.

The problem is I make a giant predictable circle around my opponent. This makes me tired and allows my opponent to cut off the ring and lead me into his right hand. I generally do well for 1 and a half rounds, get tired, then get beaten up by this style.

I’m going to spend some time watching film of boxers defeating or doing well against this style. I’ll watch some of James Toney’s (above) more successful opponents, I’ll also watch Chavez/Roger Mayweather and maybe some others.