If It Isn’t Broke Don’t Try To Fix It Part II

By Roy Bennett

Some boxing trainers and their fighters have a strong attachment to, and a firmly held belief in, the training and conditioning methods pugilists have used since time immemorial. The thinking goes, “If it ain’t broke don’t try to fix it.” Boxing has evolved in a certain way out of raw necessity. You fight. You learn. There’s no room for anything which isn’t one hundred percent practical when you’re fighting against an equally determined opponent on that roped square of illuminated canvas. That’s why boxing contains relatively few techniques. Make a wrong move and you pay for it. Painfully. In legitimate boxing circles, technique, styles, strategies, and conditioning methods have been handed down from one generation to another relatively unchanged for a reason. They’re proven to work. One look at the win, loss, draw, ring records of the following boxers tells you one thing straight off the bat.

Archie Moore, 183-24-10, 131 KO’s

Sugar Ray Robinson, 179-19-6, 109 KO’s

Willie Pep, 230-11-1, 65 KO’s

Freddie Steele, 120-4-8, 60 KO’s

Marvin Hagler, 62-3-2, 52 KO’s

They knew what they were doing. They did their roadwork, skipped rope, push ups, sit ups, calisthenics, medicine ball work, hit the heavy bag, speed ball, shadow boxed, and sparred, made weight, and fought often. All became world champions. Talent played a part in their success, along with hard work, but the other common denominator is the basic conditioning formula specific to and appropriate for boxing. Don’t waste time learning Olympic weightlifting, flipping tyres, and dragging sleds. It’s not going to help you once the bell rings. If anything it’s going to impede your boxing technique by developing muscles you don’t need at the expense of the ones you do need. At welterweight Ray Robinson had a slim build but he could knock you flat with either hand. The 109 KO’s on his ledger didn’t come by doing kettlebell swings and barbell thrusters. Archie Moore amassed 131 KO’s, the most in history, but he didn’t lift heavy weights. Thomas Hearns was a tall, skinny, broad shouldered welterweight who came blazing out of Detroit’s west side with a string of KO’s in the late 1970’s.

Known variously as “The Hit Man,”and “The Motor City Cobra,” Hearns made opponents disappear when he hit them on the chin with his right hand. The late Emmanuel Steward, his esteemed trainer, was adamant he wouldn’t let any strength & conditioning coach near his fighters. Some strength coaches think the power generated and delivered by a weightlifter is the same as that generated by a boxer. They are completely different. One is based on applying maximum tension to an inanimate object predominantly along a linear pathway. The other is based on applying a fast, relaxed power with snap on the end of it like a whip. And all movements originate on a circle. Even the straight punches have a circular torque on them. No idea what I’m referring to? Then pull up a chair and watch the following knockouts on YouTube.

Bob Foster vs Mike Quarry

Donald Curry vs Milton McCrory

Thomas Hearns vs James Shuler

Ray Leonard vs Dave “Boy” Green

Randall Bailey vs Frankie Figueroa

Julian Jackson v well, just about anybody. But start with his KO’s of Herol Graham and Buster Drayton. These knockouts demonstrate a combination of speed, timing, leverage, and power generated from sound boxing fundamentals. Not brute strength. None of these boxers trained with heavy weights. With the explosion and popularisation of the “cross training” culture in the last decade, conditioning methods and strategies from other sports have been added to some boxers training programs in an attempt to give fighters a so called edge over the competition. Some will use the argument that sports performance has improved due to the application of science to modern athletic training methods. This is a valid point. But in boxing the reverse may be true. Pugilism is not Track and Field or the NFL. Real improvements in boxing performance cannot be measured against a stopwatch or a points total at seasons end.

Nowadays I’m seeing too many “athletes” throwing punches and not enough application of the craft and science of boxing backed by the right kind of physical preparation. I know this because real KO punchers have almost become an endangered species. If a boxer is training with heavy weights his punching power decreases because he loses snap on his punches. He can no longer relax sufficiently to deliver that whip like quality to his shots. Technique suffers and the boxer starts to load up on his punches and begins wasting energy because of it. While the application of science to sports can greatly help fighters to make informed decisions about the internal processes of the body, how to reduce or add weight safely, and contribute toward injury prevention, let its contributions stay in the allied health arena, as a compliment to, not a hinderance to a boxer’s primary goal of winning fights and being successful in the ring.

Whether he is focusing on dominating a single weight division, or moving up or down in weight, a boxer needs a tried and tested, efficient, and repeatable method of achieving his conditioning goals. One that doesn’t add to the wear and tear a full contact sport already has on his body. Time spent hoisting beer kegs overhead and flipping JCB tyres could be better spent doing bodyweight exercises with light to moderate resistance, stretching, and working on boxing technique, footwork, and the application of skill. Boxing’s physical training traditions should be more respected. They were good enough for the great fighters and trainers of the past. They’re good enough for today’s boxers too.

Read Part I of: If It Isn’t Broke Don’t Try To Fix It