Hey guys I have been lurking here for some time, began boxing training last summer and have been doing it a few days a week since. Last weekend had my first golden gloves fight. Didnt win but im not too worried about it. heres the vid. would appreciate feedback I know i need alot of skills work its turns out my conditioning was pretty much good but I need to get alot more sparring in before I try it again I think enjoy
Im in the red trunks
First - Congratulations for getting in the ring. It takes balls and you showed plenty of heart.
As for things to improve on/reasons why you lost:
The guy you were up against was pretty good for a first time fight. I’ve seen guys with 5 fights not look any better.
You’re first major flaw is that you lean back almost every time he throws a punch. Ali can do it, because he is that good. You cannot. All of your knock downs/standing counts can be directly attributed to this flaw. Get a grip on it fast, because you won’t get far if you don’t, and an experienced opponent would have had you out cold inside the first round. This is the only thing I am going to be harsh on, but I can’t make it clear enough how much that fucked you up there, and how much of a beating you are going to cop if you dont stop it.
Your hands - stop dropping them every time you punch. Your coach needs to smack you round the head with the pads every time you do it. This is also another major reason you got stopped. You can’t gift your opponent those opportunities in this game, it will get you hurt. You drop your right hand when you jab, which is criminal. Jab the bag for several rounds with an orange/tennis ball pressed against your cheek by your right hand. Every time it drops, 10 burpees.
Specifically your lead hand. When you jab, bring it back fast to your cheek. Protect yourself at all times. Stop waving it about all fight long. Floyd Mayweather can do it, cos he knows his stuff. You are wasting energy, and not in the right position to jab when your opponent comes into range.
MOST SPECIFICALLY ON YOUR LEAD HAND. DO NOT DROP THAT FUCKING THING WHEN YOUR OPPONENT IS IN RANGE UNLESS YOU ARE INVITING A RIGHT HAND YOU KNOW HOW TO COUNTER. In your case, you dropped the hand, and then didnt slip his right. Instead you got hit. Avoid this.
Your jab. Jab from the shoulder in straight lines. your jab lacks structural strength. You paw with it, and jab downwards against a taller opponent. Smash that left hand, stiffly, in a line with your shoulder (which needs to come up more to protect your chin), straight down the middle into your opponents face. Hurt him with it.
Footwork - move early, don’t cross your feet, don’t be so drastic. Footwork was the reason you went down for the first knockdown. You were off balance. Concentrate on your footwork in sparring. Small improvements will make you a much better fighter.
Avoiding punches. Touched on earlier with the leaning back thing. Move forwards, not back. when your opponent is moving forwards, you can put your hands up and lean forwards, or side to side, take little punishment, and not be off balance getting silly points given against you. you need to be more aggressive in your defence. Being ‘afraid to get hit’ was actually getting you hit a lot more. Head down, hands up, and get into his body, with your hands and body weight on his hands. Don’t give him time and space and comfort to throw from. If you can’t hit him, make it awkward for him.
Learn how to clinch. Again, aggressive defence. If someone is getting in on you like that, and you are running short of ideas, just grab the fucker in a clinch. No need to take excessive punishment.
Aggression. There’s no getting away from it in this sport. You need to learn how to turn it on. It’s got to hurt your pride to have a guy walk through you. It’s got to make you want to throw punches even though that could mean getting hit back. You needed to make that guy respect your intent to do his bodily harm more than you did. It doesn’t come naturally to a lot of fighters, despite what you might think. It’s in there, but you’ve got to work out what lets you get it out.
Positives:
You looked good for a guy in his first fight, bar the leaning back. You acquitted yourself very well and can be pleased with your performance. I thought both standing counts were harsh. You didn’t look in any trouble to me. You shook off the effects of the knockdowns/counts easily, you never looked hurt, and you looked like you could have done several more rounds. You came out positively behind your jab. It needs dedicated work, but you were pumping it nicely at times. You had some good moments and displayed plenty of courage and potential. Keep up the sparring,work hard on the basics, and you will make a lot of good progress.
LondonBoxer with a great damn breakdown. I just wanted to post and say Congrats on getting in the ring man, that’s ballsy and you have a lot to be proud of no matter how much there is to work on…I mean hey it’s just your first fight :). Congrats on putting your name into your training because a lot of people never do.
London pretty much nailed it. I would add that we have all made the same mistakes and I still make them.
The top things you can do to improve yourself at this point is to work on keeping your hands up and firing your jab hard from the guard, rotating your hips and firing it straight like London said.
Next would be to work on your bob and weave/head movement. I would suggest leaning forward when someone is pounding at you like that and maybe add a pivot to sidestep him and get off the ropes.
Lastly some advice from Krav Maga. Lead with the weapon. I noticed many times when you punch you are stepping into the guy but your punch is behind your feet. Start that punch a millisecond before you step, lanuch it out there and make sure your back foot is on the ground when it lands.
You looked pretty good for a first fight. I know lots of things you can do in the gym kinda of go away when you get in the ring and you are left with the most basic instincts so I can tell you have worked hard in your training. The more times you fight the more comfortable you will be in there. I won my first fight but I took a serious ass beating for over a minute because I came in with my chin up leaning back much like you did. The guy I was fighting had already had 5 fights. Great job in there!
[quote]LondonBoxer123 wrote:
First - Congratulations for getting in the ring. It takes balls and you showed plenty of heart.
As for things to improve on/reasons why you lost:
The guy you were up against was pretty good for a first time fight. I’ve seen guys with 5 fights not look any better.
You’re first major flaw is that you lean back almost every time he throws a punch. Ali can do it, because he is that good. You cannot. All of your knock downs/standing counts can be directly attributed to this flaw. Get a grip on it fast, because you won’t get far if you don’t, and an experienced opponent would have had you out cold inside the first round. This is the only thing I am going to be harsh on, but I can’t make it clear enough how much that fucked you up there, and how much of a beating you are going to cop if you dont stop it.
Your hands - stop dropping them every time you punch. Your coach needs to smack you round the head with the pads every time you do it. This is also another major reason you got stopped. You can’t gift your opponent those opportunities in this game, it will get you hurt. You drop your right hand when you jab, which is criminal. Jab the bag for several rounds with an orange/tennis ball pressed against your cheek by your right hand. Every time it drops, 10 burpees.
Specifically your lead hand. When you jab, bring it back fast to your cheek. Protect yourself at all times. Stop waving it about all fight long. Floyd Mayweather can do it, cos he knows his stuff. You are wasting energy, and not in the right position to jab when your opponent comes into range.
MOST SPECIFICALLY ON YOUR LEAD HAND. DO NOT DROP THAT FUCKING THING WHEN YOUR OPPONENT IS IN RANGE UNLESS YOU ARE INVITING A RIGHT HAND YOU KNOW HOW TO COUNTER. In your case, you dropped the hand, and then didnt slip his right. Instead you got hit. Avoid this.
Your jab. Jab from the shoulder in straight lines. your jab lacks structural strength. You paw with it, and jab downwards against a taller opponent. Smash that left hand, stiffly, in a line with your shoulder (which needs to come up more to protect your chin), straight down the middle into your opponents face. Hurt him with it.
Footwork - move early, don’t cross your feet, don’t be so drastic. Footwork was the reason you went down for the first knockdown. You were off balance. Concentrate on your footwork in sparring. Small improvements will make you a much better fighter.
Avoiding punches. Touched on earlier with the leaning back thing. Move forwards, not back. when your opponent is moving forwards, you can put your hands up and lean forwards, or side to side, take little punishment, and not be off balance getting silly points given against you. you need to be more aggressive in your defence. Being ‘afraid to get hit’ was actually getting you hit a lot more. Head down, hands up, and get into his body, with your hands and body weight on his hands. Don’t give him time and space and comfort to throw from. If you can’t hit him, make it awkward for him.
Learn how to clinch. Again, aggressive defence. If someone is getting in on you like that, and you are running short of ideas, just grab the fucker in a clinch. No need to take excessive punishment.
Aggression. There’s no getting away from it in this sport. You need to learn how to turn it on. It’s got to hurt your pride to have a guy walk through you. It’s got to make you want to throw punches even though that could mean getting hit back. You needed to make that guy respect your intent to do his bodily harm more than you did. It doesn’t come naturally to a lot of fighters, despite what you might think. It’s in there, but you’ve got to work out what lets you get it out.
Positives:
You looked good for a guy in his first fight, bar the leaning back. You acquitted yourself very well and can be pleased with your performance. I thought both standing counts were harsh. You didn’t look in any trouble to me. You shook off the effects of the knockdowns/counts easily, you never looked hurt, and you looked like you could have done several more rounds. You came out positively behind your jab. It needs dedicated work, but you were pumping it nicely at times. You had some good moments and displayed plenty of courage and potential. Keep up the sparring,work hard on the basics, and you will make a lot of good progress.
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This gets a high five from me. Dymar, heed London’s words and don’t listen to anyone that hasn’t got similar advice.
But I can’t concur more on the following points:
Your guard needs to improve and you need to protect yourself when throwing punches as well as recovering quicker to follow through with combos. However, your guard need not be a rigid thing. Find what protects you best, but allows you to still fight back.
Your footwork will improve. It will improve as you drill it harder in training, and as you sink into a more instinctual fight mode. I can recall dancing around like a ballerina on E when I began fighting. But as you improve and gain experience, the motor skills need will flow like water from a tap and your footwork will become more deliberate and precise (if that is a good description of it). Perhaps the other guys can back me up or correct as needed.
As Ranzo said, these are all things that everybody goes through and learns as they improve. In the ring, no one has arrived at the pinnacle of skill. Everyone wins, draws and gets a whupping.
Deliberate and precise is a very good way of putting it. Improvements in footwork, and more specifically, developing the ability to put your feet in the right position every time to get every last drop of power out of your punches is one of the things that puts fighters into the advanced league. In defence it means stepping off/back just enough to do the job without any waste energy, and to make sure that punches land less cleanly on you than they otherwise might. Signs of an advanced fighter.
Then once you start getting really good, it’s all about using your feet to out maneuver your opponent, as he uses his footwork to get into good offensive or defensive positions. It’s chess Dyman, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Thanks for all the input guys, what you are saying makes perfect sense will be focusing on that in the next few months, will let you all know how future fights end up!