FEET FEET FEET FEET

Boxing at the moment seems to have a series of guys who are very talented above the waist and mediocre or worse below the waist.

Fighters including Andre Berto, Paul Williams and tonight Anthony Peterson have fast hands, decent upper body technique and the feet of a high school offensive lineman and a strange lack of explosiveness.

So what is going on? Are athletes' native gifts really divided that way? I don't know the answer to that. But what became abundantly clear tonight is that Brandon Rios, seemingly the more limited guy, had vastly superior footwork to Peterson and THAT was the difference.

Peterson made so many technical mistakes with his feet I'm not sure I caught them all. But here are some:
-When stepping sideways he steps with the wrong foot every few steps and crosses over.
-When throwing combinations of 4-5 punches, Peterson would not move his feet at all and as a result his position was absolutely stationary.
-After he punched he STILL didn't move his feet so Rios always knew where to find him.
-It seems Peterson and Berto and Williams and others can use their feet OR they can use their hands, but they cannot use them in concert.

The guy viewed as the slugger on the other hand while not technically pretty did things that made a huge difference in the fight. When he threw 2-3 punches he moved across the arc in front of Peterson so his next few punches came from a different angle. Now Rios really preferred to step to his right and he threw his most devastating punches while his head was opposite Peterson's left shoulder.

So what we saw was Peterson's punches always coming from the same place and without maximum leverage and power and Rios always knowing where to find him and Peterson NOT knowing where Rios' punches were coming from.

I am now thinking this upper body-lower body disconnect is a function of poor teaching and poor training. These trainers need to go grab Angelo Dundee and Manny Steward and Freddie Roach and some other old time trainers and say SHOW me how to teach fighters to integrate their upper and lower bodies. Or they should go watch Ike Williams videos.

my honest opinion
todays fighters suffer from

A. Just not as good trainers, emphasis isnt put on the little important things like footwork and proper defense, emphasis is put in punching and thats what stick IMO

B. Our amateurs grew up watching freaks like Pernell Whitaker and Roy Jones Jr who could get away with stuff that they cant, and everybody thinks they can get away with it

C. The Depression created an influx of over 8,000 african american fighters during the time, simply put we got spoiled and saw supreme athletes that crafted themselves, the guys nowadays are just after paychecks they dont care about becoming the best

I think sometimes we become overly analitical. I think its simpler than training and such. Rios simply wanted it more and was the much smarter fighter who made the proper adjustments. I think Eddie Futch Angelo Dundee And cus dmato couldn't have helped Peterson. Plain and simple he just ain't that good. If he was he wouldn't have brawled with a brawler. Listen to Rios post fight interview. He makes adjustments and executes, Peterson does not. Training as a whole needs to be better and footwork is underrated but in this case Peterson was losing no matter what. He couldn't hurt Rios and was intimidated by him after the second round.

hardcoreBEE24 wrote:

I think sometimes we become overly analitical. I think its simpler than training and such. Rios simply wanted it more and was the much smarter fighter who made the proper adjustments. I think Eddie Futch Angelo Dundee And cus dmato couldn't have helped Peterson. Plain and simple he just ain't that good. If he was he wouldn't have brawled with a brawler. Listen to Rios post fight interview. He makes adjustments and executes, Peterson does not. Training as a whole needs to be better and footwork is underrated but in this case Peterson was losing no matter what. He couldn't hurt Rios and was intimidated by him after the second round.

The reason he couldn't hurt Rios was, at least in part, because he could never surprise Rios with a new angle. Rios could see EVERYTHING coming. Rios on the other hand was often where Peterson couldn't find him.

Peterson brawled with a brawler because his feet wouldn't let him do any different. Peterson could either move and not punch or punch and not move. One guy knew what he was doing, the other didn't.

marbleheadmaui wrote:

hardcoreBEE24 wrote:

I think sometimes we become overly analitical. I think its simpler than training and such. Rios simply wanted it more and was the much smarter fighter who made the proper adjustments. I think Eddie Futch Angelo Dundee And cus dmato couldn't have helped Peterson. Plain and simple he just ain't that good. If he was he wouldn't have brawled with a brawler. Listen to Rios post fight interview. He makes adjustments and executes, Peterson does not. Training as a whole needs to be better and footwork is underrated but in this case Peterson was losing no matter what. He couldn't hurt Rios and was intimidated by him after the second round.

The reason he couldn't hurt Rios was, at least in part, because he could never surprise Rios with a new angle. Rios could see EVERYTHING coming. Rios on the other hand was often where Peterson couldn't find him.

Peterson brawled with a brawler because his feet wouldn't let him do any different. Peterson could either move and not punch or punch and not move. One guy knew what he was doing, the other didn't.

Totally agree. I think Rios is just a lot better of a fighter. I don't think anyone can teach Peterson to be good e nough to defeat Rios. On another note the attitude of the corner and the corner of the last few fights involving up and comers has been terrible. A trainer has to be encouraging at times not always critical. Trainers have to keep their cool and talk to their fighter not at them. A good trainer knows when to go into desperation mode and when to stay calm. Petersons trainer was all desperation. It would be hard for me to take direction from a guy like that.

hardcoreBEE24 wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

hardcoreBEE24 wrote:

I think sometimes we become overly analitical. I think its simpler than training and such. Rios simply wanted it more and was the much smarter fighter who made the proper adjustments. I think Eddie Futch Angelo Dundee And cus dmato couldn't have helped Peterson. Plain and simple he just ain't that good. If he was he wouldn't have brawled with a brawler. Listen to Rios post fight interview. He makes adjustments and executes, Peterson does not. Training as a whole needs to be better and footwork is underrated but in this case Peterson was losing no matter what. He couldn't hurt Rios and was intimidated by him after the second round.

The reason he couldn't hurt Rios was, at least in part, because he could never surprise Rios with a new angle. Rios could see EVERYTHING coming. Rios on the other hand was often where Peterson couldn't find him.

Peterson brawled with a brawler because his feet wouldn't let him do any different. Peterson could either move and not punch or punch and not move. One guy knew what he was doing, the other didn't.

Totally agree. I think Rios is just a lot better of a fighter. I don't think anyone can teach Peterson to be good e nough to defeat Rios. On another note the attitude of the corner and the corner of the last few fights involving up and comers has been terrible. A trainer has to be encouraging at times not always critical. Trainers have to keep their cool and talk to their fighter not at them. A good trainer knows when to go into desperation mode and when to stay calm. Petersons trainer was all desperation. It would be hard for me to take direction from a guy like that.

You could be right. It could be that Peterson just isn't the athlete he looks to be and that nobody can teach him to move his feet. The training thing kills me. I'v watched enough good cornermen work to know how it usually ouight to be done. One has about fifty seconds to work. Take the first 15 seconds and tell the guy to breath while you are checking him physically, wiping him down, workin g on cuts etc. Let him settle. THEN take the next 30 seconds and give no more than 1-2 VERY SPECIFIC pieces of technical advice. Nobody under that sort of stress can absorb any more than that. Then take the last ten seconds and build confidence. Calm all the way through. Let the fighter use the minimal possible energy.

From what I have seen the only time to productively deviate from that is in a real crisis. Not just behind, but at risk of losing in the very next round due to being unfocused or lazy.

How often did one ever see Arcel or Futch or Freddie bellowing in the corner?

Oh yeah and Rios really seems to have an assassin's mentality doesn't he? Composed enough after taking those low blows to understand Peterson was in trouble and a long break probably helped Peterson more than him.

I guess Dundee and Steward are passionate but never so critical that its detrimental to the fighter. Tonight and in my opinion In the Alexander fight the corners were nervous wrecks. It was sad. Peterson needed some confidence boost. Not screams of its simple why don't you listen. As soon as that shit started you could see Peterson wanted nothing to do with the fight anymore.

Marble just to be clear foot work in boxing currently is lacking in a lot of these up and coming fighters. It was lacking in Peterson tonight especially. I just think like you said Peterson is all show and no go against a guy like Rios. He also couldn't hurt Rios at all and looked very intimidated after he gave Rios big shots and Rios came back with bigger shots.

marbleheadmaui wrote:

Oh yeah and Rios really seems to have an assassin's mentality doesn't he? Composed enough after taking those low blows to understand Peterson was in trouble and a long break probably helped Peterson more than him.

I was really impressed with Rios composure. I was also impressed with how he judged Petersons power and ability by almost playing possum the first round. Very clever fighter i can't wait to see him fight again.

Devon Alexander, a pure boxer, doesn't have great feet.

Peterson's feet were bad. His strategy was worse (partially a function of his footwork). He needed the fight to be at distance, using the jab. Don't dare be in the phone booth for 3 mins a round. It is the type of fight where there was going to be some in fighting, but darn it make sure that isn't more than 30 seconds a round. Spend most of the round, using the jab, giving Rios angles.

Peterson's feet probably weren't good enough to remotely execute the plan I would have come up with for him.