Amir Khan: The Next Big Thing?

Amir “King” Khan (23-1-0) is a Pakistani-British boxing sensation, current WBA world light-welterweight champion, and seemingly the total boxing superstar package. He has good looks, charisma, excellent technical boxing skills, superb speed, decent power, along with a silver medal from the 2004 Olympics and an excellent trainer, the same trainer as 7 weight class world champion Manny Pacquiao, 4-time trainer of the year Freddie Roach. Is he the next big thing in boxing?

He certainly made a case for himself in his American debut last Saturday at Madison Square Garden, putting on a boxing clinic as he dismantled fast-talking and fast-punching contender Paulie “the Magic Man” Malignaggi (27-5-0). Khan worked the double-jab beautifully, rotating to the left, coming from angles, popping Malignaggi in the head with 223 punches according to HBO’s Punchzone, the bulk of which were stiff jabs. Khan lead on the judges’ scorecards, taking every round up through the 11th, finishing the defenseless Malignaggi with a hard flurry to earn the referee stoppage, cementing Khan’s impressive American debut with an 11th round TKO. In the interview following his victory, Khan expressed his interest in unifying the light-welterweight class by defeating the heavy-handed WBA light-welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana and then taking on the winner of a proposed fight between WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley and WBC and IBF Light welterweight champion Devon Alexander. Khan certainly exhibited the confidence of a champion as he proposed to unify the light-welterweight titles, but there remains some skepticism as to whether Khan possesses another certain trait shared by great champions: a good chin.



HBO’s Punchzone showed that over 11 rounds, Khan took only one punch on the chin and in return, Khan landed a total of 91 punches on the chin of Malignaggi. Khan’s ability to avoid being hit on the chin is commendable on one hand, but it also raises some concern, as Khan is clearly indicating his unwillingness, and perhaps inability, to take a good punch on his chin. After his embarrassing 1st round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott in 2008, it is no surprise that Khan is extra cautious when it comes to taking shots to the chin. While it is impressive that Khan went through a whole fight only getting hit on the chin once, once may be one time too many if the fight with Marcos Maidana (28-1-0) comes to fruition. Of his 28 wins, the heavy-handed Argentinean has won 27 by way of knockout, giving him a KO percentage of 93% with 10 knockouts in the first round, so Khan will have to fight a perfect fight if he plans on defeating Maidana and eventually unifying the light-welterweight titles.

Learn to Box: The Jab pt 1

The previous two Learn to Box posts covered Target Areas and Stance. Now that you know wear to aim for, and how to stand in order to keep yourself protected, it's time to learn the most important punch in boxing: The Jab.

How to throw the jab

The jab is a straight punch thrown with the lead (front) hand, which would be the left hand for an orthodox boxer. If any of that sounds foreign, you may want to refer back to the post about the orthodox stance. The jab is a long rang punch, and is thrown in a straight path, drawing the shortest distance between your lead hand and your opponent's face. There are dozens of different kinds of jabs, but in general, the jab is one of the fastest, safest punches to throw. Let's see how it's done.



Here the two opponents face each other, each in orthodox stance with their left leg forward, and left hand forward.




Here we see the fighter on the right side starting to throw a jab.
(A) He is pushing off slightly with his back foot, pushing himself towards his opponent.

(B) The fist is beginning to rotate, with his palm beginning to turn down towards the ground.

(c) The elbow should remain pointed down towards the ground as long as possible. If the elbow juts out to the side, the jab will not be as fast or as straight.




Here we see the jab connecting with the opponent's face.

(A) For a long, powerful jab, the front heel should pivot at the last second, with the toes planted, and the heel rotating towards the target. This heel rotation adds a couple inches to your punch and adds power from your hips into your jab.

(B) The left shoulder should be rotated up towards the face. This protects the left side of your chin from a counter punch.

(C) The left palm should be fully rotated down towards the ground by the point of impact. This rotation adds snap to your jab and also naturally rotates your shoulder up as indicated in (B).

(D) A good jab will cause your opponent's head to snap back, setting them up for further attack or scoring points with the judges.


Here is different angle for the jab.



Note how the jab can cut between the gloves of the opponent, landing clean on the face. If the opponent has their left hand lower, it makes it even easier to connect with the jab.

Here is a breakdown for the jab from a front angle.



(1) Assume the initial stance. It is important to always start from this position so as to not telegraph your punches. If you change your stance as you prepare to throw a punch, your opponent will be able to read your movements and easily avoid your punch.

(2)
a. The left hand begins to rotate towards the ground.
b. The elbow remains pointed towards the ground.
c. The shoulder gradually rotates upwards towards your left chin.

(3) The jab connects
a. The fist is fully rotated, palm facing the floor.
b. The arm should be straight, elbow pointing sideways.
c. The shoulder should be rotated up towards the chin, protecting it from attack. The chin should be pressed down towards your chest.
d. The right glove should still be held high, just below the eye, protecting your right side from attack.

(4-5) Your left hand should return back to the initial position in the same route it traveled, the shortest path possible. This will protect your from any counter punches, or it will allow you to throw other punches.

This post has focused on the proper method to throw the jab. The next post will go into some common mistakes as well as a uses of the jab. For now, practice, practice, practice, and then practice some more. The jab can be tiring to throw and hard to get used to, but a solid jab is the basis behind any good boxer. Till next time!

Learn to Box: Stance

In the last post, I talked about the target areas to aim for on your opponent. So how does one go about hitting your opponent, without being hit in return? The first step is to learn a proper boxing stance.

Stance

There are many different kinds of stances ranging from "Iron" Mike Tyson's defensive but explosive Peek-a-boo stance, "Money" Mayweather's elusive counter-punching Hitman stance, to "Prince" Naseem Hamed's No-Guard stance, sacrificing defense to allow him to launch punches from unorthodox angles, and I will go over some of these stances later, but for now, I will go over the Orthodox Stance. This stance is a solid, fundamental, boxing stance that is very balanced between offense and defense.



The picture above shows a front and profile view of the orthodox boxing stance.

(A) The chin is tucked down, towards the chest. While this may feel uncomfortable at first, it is important because it prevents your opponent from landing and easy, clean punches your vulnerable chin.

(B) Your right hand is held at about eye level, with your palm facing towards you. This effectively covers the right side of your chin from attacks, and if you raise your right hand an inch or two, you will also protect your right temple from attacks, effectively guarding the entire right side of your face.

(C) Your elbows are pointed down and held close to your body. This is important for many reasons, one of which is that it protects your body from punches. If your opponent tries to punch you in the body, all you have to do is press your elbows tight against your body, greatly reducing any damage you would take to your body.

(D) Your left shoulder should be relaxed. Keeping your shoulder relaxed will allow you to punch easier, and not tire out quickly.

(E) Many coaches have different thoughts on your stance, with some saying to keep the feet shoulder-width apart, and some recommending wider than that. It's a matter of preference, but I personally like to keep my feet a little wider than shoulder width, because it allows more mobility for my upper body to avoid punches. If you consider your opponent in front of you to be at a 90 degree angle, the toes on your back foot should point at about a 30 degree angle and your front foot can vary, but should probably be around a 70 degree angle.

Note how the body is turned slightly to the side, causing your left hand to be in front, closer to your opponent, with your right hand back, further away from your opponent. Fighters who are right-handed generally fight in this stance, with their right hand (their power hand) in the back. Fighters who are left-handed, generally fight with their right hands in front, and their left hand (their power hand) back. These kinds of fighters are known as southpaws and are not as common as orthodox fighters. Notable southpaws include Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao and "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler. Some fighters who are left-handed choose to fight with their left hand forward, with notable examples Mike Tyson and Miguel Cotto.

Your knees should be slightly bent and you should be on the balls of your feet. In order to throw hard punches, it is sometimes required to plant your feet, but in general, it's is safer to be on the balls of your feet, ready to move if your opponent throws a punch.

Stance is very important in boxing as it is the foundation for all your punches and defense. The stance laid out here is the orthodox stance, but you can mix it up and change it however you want. The main things to focus on are to make sure that you can defend yourself from your stance and that you have proper balance in your stance, because balance is the key to throwing effective punches.

Learn to Box: Target Areas

Here is a segment I'm starting that will focus on teaching you how to box. If you already know how to box, then you can skip these posts, but for those of you who don't know how to box and would like to learn, you may find these posts helpful. I apologize for the bad drawings, but this was a spur of the moment post. So let's jump right in.

Target Areas

Now, the art of boxing can be defined in many ways, but one simple way to describe it is knowing how to hit your opponent without being hit in return. Simple enough. So if you're fighting an opponent, where exactly are you supposed to hit him? And conversely, where are you trying to not get hit?



Figure (1) shows the four main target areas to aim for on your opponent, and to protect on yourself. The target areas include, both sides of the chin and both sides of your temples. The reason that these four areas are so vital is that hitting any of those four points has been proven over the ages as the quickest way to knock someone out. When a strike of sufficient force is thrown to any of these four areas, it causes the head to quickly snap as shown in figure (2), which in turn causes your brain to slosh about in your skull, possibly causing loss of consciousness and hemorrhaging. Not fun. While the four areas indicated in figure (1) are the highest priority, protecting your whole head and body in general is important too. A straight punch on the front of the chin as shown in figure (3) can also lead to a quick knock out.

What the hell happened to Mosley?

The once triumphant underdog resided himself to walking home with his head hung in shame and his tail between his legs. Shane Mosley has had a long career, and his fair share of losses, but I’ve never seen him so tense, petrified to throw a punch, a sitting target for the faster, stronger Mayweather. Mosley did not show up for the fight, and after an electrifying round two where Mosley nearly toppled Mayweather with a crashing right hand, Mosley seemed to give up, his energy slowly leaving him, his arms rubber, his hands reduced to balls of lead. The crowd watched in agony as Mosley took 10 rounds of brutal punishment, while Mayweather landed straight right after straight right with ridiculous ease. Truthfully, I gave up on Mosley after round 4, and the rest of the fight I just begged him to do something. Anything. Mosley’s trainer Nazim Richardson joined me in my pleads, demanding that Mosley get back in the fight, trying desperately to invoke Mosley’s warrior spirit which was nowhere to be seen on that night. No, my pleads, Nazim Richardson’s words of encouragement, and even the deafening chants from the crowd could do nothing as Mayweather hammered the nails into the coffin of Sugar Shane Mosley’s career with his perfectly timed straight right hands.

I doubt that I’m the only one who noticed it, but there was a sense of familiarity in the Mayweather vs Mosley fight on May 1st. It reminded me of a fight that took place not too long ago between Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao. Both the Mayweather vs Mosley fight and the De La Hoya vs Pacquiao fight took place at welterweight after both Mosley and De La Hoya enjoyed stints in the heavier middleweight division. Both fights showcased hall of fame caliber fighters being brutally thrashed by younger, stronger, faster boxers. Both fights signaled the end of an era, and the timely retirement of a legend. Mosley and De La Hoya enjoyed classic bouts against each other, with Mosley emerging the victor both times, and now both are boxing promoters under De La Hoya’s Goldenboy Promotions. It is too early to tell if Mosley is ready to retire, but the strings of fate are certainly pulling Mosley in that direction. I admire De La Hoya’s decision to retire gracefully after his one-sided loss to Manny Pacquiao, but I have a feeling that for a fighter like Mosley, retirement is a thought worse than death. Perhaps he can take comfort in training his son Shane Jr. who is an aspiring boxer.

So back to the initial question: What the hell happened to Mosley? There are countless possible reasons for his pitiful performance on Saturday night, and I will go through some of the possible reasons.

1) Mayweather’s defense was too much: A very probable cause for Mosley’s lackluster performance. While not always apparent, the beauty of Mayweather’s style isn’t all about straight right hands and left hooks, but it’s what he does to set them up. Whether it’s his shoulder rolls or his illegal use of his elbow to control the heads of his opponents in close, Mayweather’s speed and counter-punching style is enough to frustrate and neutralize some of the best boxers out there. While this is most likely a large part of the reason why the fight was so one-sided, I don’t believe Mayweather deserves all the credit.

2) Mosley is too old: Another possible cause which is easy to resort to, but not necessarily true. In January 2009, Mosley showed a dominant performance over the WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito, showing that he still had his trademark tenacity, spirit, and powerpunches to boot, and unless he miraculously aged 10 years in a year and a half, it seems unlikely that this is the only reason why Mosley wasn’t himself on Saturday. Inability to pull the trigger is a tell-tale sign that a boxer is over the hill and perhaps this loss will mark the beginning of a steep decline for Sugar Shane.

3) Mosley over-trained: Most fighters will hold training camps a month or two before the fight and they will use this time to work on techniques and conditioning, ensuring that they are in their peak condition by fight night. Mosley however was initially scheduled to fight young prospect, WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto on January 2010, but the fight was canceled after Berto lost several family members in the earthquake in Haiti. Following the collapse of the Berto fight, Mosley went after Mayweather, and scheduling two training camps so soon together, may have caused Mosley to peak too early and not be in top shape for the fight with Mayweather. The random Olympic style drug testing leading up to the fight may have made it even harder for Mosley to make weight and stay in peak condition.

4) Pressure: It’s easy to look at Sugar Shane Mosley and judge him for his lackluster performance, but it is certainly something else to be him. There might just have been too much riding Mosley’s shoulders that night, and the once spirited underdog collapsed the pressure. He needed to prove to himself that he wasn’t too old to compete with the upper echelon of the sport. He wanted to silence the skeptics and the critics who counted him out, as an old has-been. He wanted to silence Mayweather for all the nasty remarks he had been hurling around at press conferences. Countless fans were counting on Mosley to end Mayweather’s tyrannical reign as the king of boxing, and it felt as though that thunderous right Mosley landed in round 2 was a triumphant release of all these pressures. For one glorious moment, Mosley saw a glimmer of hope, a release from the mountain of pent up frustration, a chance of victory, but in one short round, Mosley would find himself on the receiving end, watching helplessly as Mayweather wrenched control of the fight, leaving Mosley to collapse under the mountain of pressure.

5) Mayweather’s pressure: This is an aspect of boxing and combat sports in general that is often neglected by the average fan. If one has never been faced with a tough opponent in a physical confrontation, it is difficult to imagine or describe the “pressure” that boxers face. Most often, when people think of ring “pressure” it comes in the form of one boxer constantly pressing forward, while the other boxer is forced to move back. While this is indeed one kind of pressure, there is another kind of pressure which is exerted by skilled boxers. This kind of pressure is stifling and mind-numbing, and it creates a kind of tunnel-vision, making the ring appear smaller than it is, seemingly limiting ones options. To any common bystander, it may look baffling as to why a boxer is being hit by punches he should be able to avoid, and oftentimes, it is this pressure that is the cause. In the case of Mayweather, his pressure causes opponents to stand in front of him and fight him at his pace. Rather than using the entire ring, circling with jabs to the head and body, opponents strangely find themselves standing in front of Mayweather, fighting to his strengths, succumbing to hard counter-punches. Oddly, I’ve never known Mayweather to exert all that much pressure, but then again, I’ve never been in the ring with him.

Verdict
It was most likely a combination of all the aforementioned reasons, but how much of each reason is of course subject to debate. Perhaps Mosley over-trained and was fatigued from the blood testing and then found himself powerless against Mayweather’s pressure and became frustrated when he couldn’t crack Mayweather’s defense. Maybe Mosley was just scared of being knocked out. Maybe Mosley traded his dignity for a fat paycheck. Everyone can have their theories, and Mosley can give the answers people want to hear, but no one will ever know for certain what happened behind Mosley’s crystal blue eyes on Saturday night. Do I think Mosley should retire? Perhaps. Do I think Mosley can still win fights? Most certainly. Do I think Mosley can compete with the top echelon of boxers? No, not really. Not unless he wants to find himself on the receiving end of another brutal beatdown.

The bottomline is fight between Mayweather and Mosley was a disappointment on so many different levels. The fans who were expecting a great action fight were left watching a hopelessly one-sided thrashing. Nazim Richardson was left watching his meticulous gameplan unravel in the hands of a fighter unwilling to adhere to the gameplan. Mayweather finally came out of his shell and pressed the offense, only to find his opponent unwilling to fight, resulting in another “boring” Mayweather bout. Mosley’s children watched their father, the once proud warrior, stumble out of the ring, heavy-hearted and with his spirit broken. Possibly, worst of all, Mosley suffered 10 rounds of humiliation and frustration, unable to pull the trigger, unable to put up a decent fight, unable to be himself. Each time Mosley missed a punch or was hit flush with a big right hand, he seemed to shake his head, telling himself to try harder, telling himself he was better than that, refusing to believe that it was time to hang up the gloves. But after 10 humiliating rounds, all Mosley was left with the sixth loss of his career and a deep sense of bitter disappointment.