As a combat sport, boxing is very much like conducting a military campaign. Each fight represents a specific objective that you must overcome on your way to ultimate victory with a world title. Each fight also requires particular planning and development of strategy to better the chances of winning the battle.
Winning the battle usually requires a combination of ring tactics and boxing strategy to overcome the opponent. The fighters who do that best are considered “ring generals” due to their ability to control the pace and direction of each fight. They can adapt to fighting styles and changing fight conditions alike while maintaining the initiative. The following is a closer look are ring generalship in boxing.
Ring Generalship Defined
There are two ways to fight. One is to let your opponent bring the fight to you and try to counteract his jabs, punches and footwork. Doing that delivers the initiative to your opponent and could cause you to fight the way your opponent dictates. Unless you are Muhammed Ali performing his famous “rope a dope” strategy, odds are letting your opponent dictate the fight will have undesirable results.
Ring generalship requires seizing the initiative and forcing your opponent to think and react to what you are doing in the ring. In most cases, that will not include allowing your opponent to beat on you like helpless ragdoll. Suppose your opponent is notorious for gassing out early in fights due to poor conditioning. A smart ring general could use that against the opponent by making him think he has the upper hand and letting him wear himself out with ineffective punches.
In short, a ring general has a plan and the weapons to get the job done by seizing and maintaining the initiative. The ring general does not fight the opponent’s fight, because that would mean overcoming the opponent’s best weapons. Instead, you want to erase any tactical advantage your opponent might have and force him to fight the way that you force him to fight.
Examples of Great Ring Generals
The brief mention of Ali’s rope a dope strategy against then-world champion George Foreman during the “Rumble in the Jungle” title fight in 1974.is a good example of ring generalship winning a major fight. Foreman is one of the all-time greatest hard-hitting heavyweights to ever enter the ring. And he was a very formidable opponent for Ali.
But instead of fighting Forman’s fight, Ali only pretended to do so for the first few rounds. Ali generally let Forman come at him and wear himself out by throwing hard punches that Ali mostly deflected. Instead of landing hard rights and lefts to Ali’s body and head, Foreman mostly sent glancing blows and often missed altogether.
Once Foreman was out of gas, Ali took the fight to him and prevailed by using superior fight skills and strategy. Unable to stop Ali, Foreman became his punching bag and lost the big title fight.
How Do You get a Fighter to Fight Your Preferred Style?
A smart fighter never lets his opponent use his strengths. Instead, a smart fighter learns his opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and devises a plan to exploit them.
Roberto Duran is another highly regarded ring general who forced his opponents to fight his preferred style while disregarding theirs. Duran was an expert at applying forward pressure to get inside his opponents and then punish them with hard body blows and upper cuts. Duran used his expert footwork, body movement and exceptional defensive capability to set up his opponents and deliver hard blows while countering their often misplaced punches.
Once Duran got inside his opponents, he used his head and forearms to position them to receive the full energy of his punches. It takes as much energy to stop a thrown punch as it does to throw the punch. So when Duran forced his opponents to miss while setting them up for devastating blows, he masterfully demonstrated the effectiveness of a true ring general.
Is it Important to Dictate the Pace and Action?
You never want to fight to your opponent’s strength. Instead, you want to force your opponent to fight in a manner to which he is unaccustomed and is more likely to make mistakes. Sugar Ray Robinson masterfully used feints to trick his opponents and cause them to open up. Once he had them ranged with his jabs, Robinson subjected them to hard punches that mostly found their mark.
More recently, Floyd Mayweather used his array of exceptional fight skills to effectively counter his opponents’ best boxing skills. Mayweather used body jabs, feints and footwork to position his opponents and set them up to receive a flurry of blows that knocked out many.
How Does a Good Ring General Prevent Big Fight Exchanges?
A big fight exchange is one in which both fighters generally stop using defense and just exchange blows, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns once fought that way for about 8 minutes before Hagler prevailed with a hard blow that knocked Hearns out of the fight and secured the middleweight world title. Such fights abandon just about all training other than the most basic and completely eliminate any potential for ring generalship.
Mayweather retired undefeated in part because he never allowed opponents to get him into a big exchange. Instead, Mayweather used footwork and jabs to create distance that made big exchanges impossible. He also would smother his opponents when in close and prevent them from brawling instead of fighting like professionals.
Is it More Important to Dictate the Pace or the Action?
The pace of a fight generally refers to the tempo and rhythm of the fight. Instead of squaring off and exchanging blows until one fighter wins, most fighters will pace themselves to better learn what the opponent is doing and how to counter it. The pace helps to set up the action by using strategy to cause your opponent to make a mistake and leave himself vulnerable to heavy action. When a fighter excels at a particular type of action, such as a powerful upper cut or combination to the head, he can use the pace to set up the opponent to make that action happen. A smart fighter can control the pace with footwork, body positioning and using the ring to cut off an opponent or otherwise limit his potential for movement during the fight. Jabs can help to set up the proper distance to deliver highly effective body blows and other devastating punches.
Does a Good Ring General Change Plans Mid Fight?
A good military general knows a plan is good right up until the first bullet is fired. Once that happens, a skilled general will adapt to the changing conditions and act accordingly. The same is true of a ring general who enters the fight with a prepared plan but adapts it to changing fight conditions.
You might not intend to throw hard rights to the opponent’s head. But if he has a swollen left eye or a cut above it, then you want to use more rights to open up the cut and possibly force a technical knockout. If an opponent presents a general weakness that you did not plan to exploit, you need to change your fight plans to exploit it and improve your chances of winning the fight.
Why Do Some Fighters Throw Punches in Volume?
Throwing punches in volume could break down an opponent and result in several hard blows reaching their intended target. If you repeatedly can devastate your opponent with a flurry of punches thrown in volume, the referee might end the fight to protect your opponent against a potentially serious injury. If your opponent has a cut or other obvious weakness and you want to put an end to the fight, throwing punches in volume could make that happen.
Is Footwork or Punching Power More Important?
Punching power is great when you can land a clean blow, but it is worthless if you throw punches that miss the target more often than hitting it. Footwork can help you to set up your opponent to receive a well positions punch. The more you can use footwork to make your opponent go where you want him to go, the more effective your punches become.
When you can use footwork in combination with punching power to land more blows, you have a better chance of winning the fight. If your opponent is reacting to your footwork and missing with his punches, he likely will tire out and become a very vulnerable target.
Does Cutting Off the Ring Win the Battle for Position?
The battle for position means different things to different fighters based on their respective fighting skills and styles. A boxer who likes a lot of movement and uses the entire ring could be frustrated by a boxer who cuts off the ring. A boxer who punches hard and works from the inside, like Duran, does not need a full ring to win.