The Secret to Watching a Fight: Part One

Secret?? What can be more obvious than two people pummeling each other?

Boxing is a sport for the masses.  It requires no thought, no extensive rule book, and no analysis of strategy or plays to understand.  It's just two people in a 20 foot square ring trying to knock each other silly.  Sound about right?

Well, for most people that is probably enough, however, if you really want to "live" a boxing match from the sidelines, or if you want to learn and glean boxing tips from the pros, then you have some preparation to do before a match.  The true boxing fan knows what I'm talking about.  I can tell you from experience, that once you start look at boxing the way I'm about to teach you, you'll never look at a match the same way.  You'll be more analytical, critical, and you will understand the story behind the battle.

Real Men BoxMost people will never see this other story that is going on in the ring.  All they will see is two people punching each other until one falls down.  There are thousands of factors that go into every fight, and the true boxing fan learns how to read the match as well as watch it.

Anyways, enough babble, if you really want to see a fight then you need to immerse yourself in it.  It requires some preparation before the fight even starts:

1.  Analyse the boxers

The more you know about the boxers, the more you will enjoy the boxing match.  With practice you can easily pick the winner 75% or more of the time if you do a thorough enough check on the boxers involved.  You want to find out everything you can about the two boxers in the match prior to the bell. 

• How old are they? 
• Where did they train? 
• Have they fought before? 
• What style of boxer are they? 
• Did they make weight? 
• Is there a big weight difference? 
• How about reach? 
• What's their records like? 
• Are they coming off a loss or a win? 
• Who is training them? 
• How do they physically look - out of shape or in prime condition? 
• Have they been mouthing off in the media about the fight? 
• Can they back up their claims historically? 
• Are they fighting in a climate they are not accustomed to? 
• Have they been training in that type of climate? 
• Do they have personal issues? 
• Who's Vegas picking as the winner? 
• Are the boxing writers leaning towards one or the other?

As you can see, there are plenty of questions to ask.  Parts Two and Three of this series will go into this in more depth and actually analyze two boxers in an upcoming fight, but for now, just take away from this that you need to learn as much as you can about the boxers.

2.  Pick a side 

Choose one of the boxers as the winner before the match and then tell the world who it is.  That's important.  Picking one and keeping it to yourself does nothing, but if you are accountable to the people you have told, then you are truly committed.  Commit to the fight.  Be careful though, choosing a side can give you the tendency to watch the fight from one perspective.  You'll see your boxer hitting harder and defending better.  Instead, make a conscious effort to see the whole story.  Look at what both boxers are doing.   Focus on both boxers, not just yours.

3.  Read the fight 

Once the fight starts, your education and the boxing story begins.  Here is a checklist of what to watch for:

• Who is the aggressor?  If it is a close match, the more aggressive boxer will usually win.
• What are their styles?  Is one fighting from the inside and low?  Is one standing still and slugging it out?
• Who is getting the better of the exchanges?  Will they stand toe to toe and if so, who is finishing the flurry?
• Who has the better jab?  Watch for the head snapping back vs a weak or lazy jab that isn't causing any damage.
• Who has the better left hook?  If neither boxer is a knockout specialist, then the one with the better jab and hook will likely win.
• How's the accuracy?  HBO Boxing and others will track this for you.  Who is landing more punches, more of the time?
• Are they punching to the head and to the body?
• Watch for blood -- cuts can stop a fight, especially over the eyes.  Bloody noses are generally just a nuisance and unless they are bleeding profusely will not stop a fight.
• Watch for staggers, slips and shakes.  When the legs go, the boxer is close behind.
• Watch for illegal hits - rabbit punches, kidney punches, elbows, head butts, low blows, etc...

If you are trying to learn a particular skill at the moment, then watch closely for that skill in the fight and see how those fighters are delivering it.  Look for what you want to learn and you'll be even more interested in what is happening.

4.  Understand the rules and keep score yourself

Sample Boxing ScorecardMost boxing associations now use a 10 point scoring system.  Both boxers start with 10 points.  Depending on who is dominating the round, scoring more blows, registering a knockdown and so on, the variance between the boxers will grow.  So, if it was a close round, the judge would score it 10-9.  If it was a obvious one boxer outscored the other, maybe a 10-8 and something completely disproportionate perhaps with a few knockdowns would end up 10-7.  I don't think I've ever seen anything bigger than a 3 pt discrepancy.

This method of score keeping is easy for you to do as well.  Take a piece of paper and follow the round.  Make quick notes, use a self-developed shorthand to record knockdowns and so on.  You can even try and log the number of punches landing on target.  Then, score the round when it is over.  See how close you come to what the judges said.  This round by round comes in handy when you want to debate a fight over the water cooler and can lead to some great discussions.

In Conclusion

In short, if you understand the story behind the fight, why the fight is taking place, and how it is taking place, you are going to become intimately involved in the outcome.  Basically you are making yourself very interested in how the match turns out.  If you really want to get involved, put money on it -- then you have something to lose as well.

Now that you know what to look for, we are going to do an example together.  Part Two of this series is going to investigate one of the boxers in an upcoming fight.  I would encourage you to try your own analysis and post it as a comment or article following the example.  The boxing match I am going to analyze with you is Marquez vs Juarez which is airing on 15 Sep 07.  I know very little about both of these fighters so this will be an eye opener for me as well.

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