HOW TO WATCH BOXING: RING GENERALSHIP
By getting his left foot outside Guerrero’s right, Mayweather creates the path for a perfect straight right hand.
and apply rules, and he has discussed ring generalship at length during his sessions. Reiss has a four-pronged framework of ring generalship, which I’ll get to in a moment, but as a key point, he wanted to emphasize ring generalship’s relative standing compared to the other scoring criteria. “What a lot of people don’t understand,” said Reiss, “is that there’s a hierarchy. If Fighter A wins the round on clean and effective punching, then that’s it. You don’t need to consider the remaining criteria.” And if there’s doubt as to who won the round based on clean and effective punching, the next thing to consider is criterion No. 2: effective aggression. Only when a round is still in doubt after applying the first two criteria should ring generalship be considered. Here’s Reiss’s four-pronged framework for ring generalship: 1. Ring control – Using punching, footwork or moves to keep an opponent off-balance. 2. Making an opponent miss but staying in the pocket to maintain an offensive position. 3. Achieving an offensive position without getting hit; hitting someone and not getting hit in return. 4. Running and/or clinching should not be rewarded if it’s not leading to offense. The most important thing is the primacy of rewarding offense. “If a fighter is not putting himself in an offensive position with his movements, then he or she is not to be given credit,” said Reiss. “Ring generalship leads to clean punching and effective aggression. If you can’t draw a line from what a fighter does to a successful offensive position, then it’s not effective ring generalship.” In other words: Some of us may love the defensive wizards, but the judges’ emphasis in how they reward rounds should be clear: Offense > defense. Reiss’ favorite fight to teach ring generalship is Round 4 of Floyd Mayweather vs. Robert Guerrero, where Mayweather was consistently putting himself in an offensive position, landing with a lot of shots while not being hit in return. This round was a masterful example of Mayweather using footwork and movement to create offense while nullifying the opponent. And it’s instructive that Mayweather, one of the best defensive fighters of recent generations, is being used in this context to highlight his offensive success. It is the action of hitting, of landing, that’s rewarded. Reiss acknowledges that problems with the correct application of ring generalship remain throughout the sport. It’s his belief that there are too many officials who don’t have the proper training regarding the scoring criteria, and there's a lack of international standardization when it comes to which criteria are emphasized.
Watching the fight now, Guerrero is very good early, so when Mayweather dominates in Round 4, this is not the continuation of his supremacy from earlier in the fight, but it’s the moment where he takes over; he has figured out what can work offensively and how to neutralize Guerrero. The most striking thing about this round is that Mayweather dominates offensively with just two main punches: a lead right hand and a counter jab. It’s great to watch tape to remind ourselves of his capabilities, because these two punches aren’t necessarily the weapons for which Mayweather is most remembered. Usually, people will refer to his jab to the body, his counter left hook and his counter right hand as his best punches. Mayweather starts the round moving, never letting a pocket develop. His early connects in the round are unusual: They are leaping right hands, where he leaves his feet and then moves to his right with quick shuffle steps to avoid Guerrero’s counter left. This is an example of Mayweather’s improvisatory genius; most likely he wasn’t practicing leaving his feet during training camp to land this type of right hand. But by the fourth round, he has sized Guerrero up and realized that he could land this shot. As the round continues, there are a couple of exchanges at midrange. Here, it’s Mayweather’s counter jab that consistently gets the better of the action. He’s either jabbing over Guerrero’s right jab or slipping a Guerrero straight left and countering with his jab. These sequences have the effect of reducing Guerrero’s punch output. By the end of the round, Guerrero is barely jabbing at all. Mayweather is gradually ticking every box on Reiss’ list. To my eyes, Guerrero lands only one impressive shot in the round, which was during a moment in the second half of the round where Mayweather voluntarily moves to the corner. Both fighters flurry, with not a ton landing, but Guerrero wraps a left hook around Mayweather’s upper body that connects. Later in the round, when Mayweather is again in a corner, he evades all punches thrown at him and avoids any further damage, a terrific example of Mayweather’s aptitude. Make a mistake once, fine. But don’t make the same mistake again. Mayweather exhibited dominance during the round from start to finish. He had a huge advantage in terms of connected punches and he was able to disarm Guerrero’s potent offense from earlier in the fight. It’s a fine example of the principles of ring generalship. He was evasive but then turned that into offense. Plus, he was the one hitting Guerrero consistently without getting hit in return. He gave Guerrero few opportunities and he was the one who controlled the ring action. The rest of the fight would demonstrate more of the same.
they aren’t followed by offensive action. Nullifying an opponent’s offense is only rewarded if there is corresponding offensive success. 4. The lack of the uniformity in how ring generalship is applied by officials is a major problem in the sport. Concept in Practice: Mayweather-Guerrero, Round 4 Before delving into the specifics of Floyd Mayweather’s mastery of ring generalship in this round, it’s worth remembering a couple of points about this fight. Guerrero started off well in the first three rounds, and he had a case for winning at least two of the opening three frames. All four judges scored the fight for Mayweather, 117-111, or nine rounds to three. I was at this fight, and that’s also how I scored it.
Simply put, Reiss believes that not enough officials know what they are looking at.
After speaking with Reiss, my takeaways for ring generalship and how to apply it were: 1. Remember the hierarchy. Although ring generalship can be crucial in certain instances, its importance pales in comparison to clean, effective punching and effective aggression. 2. It’s about offense. Boxing judges are trained to reward offensive success. Everything in the first three judging criteria is based on who was more successful offensively as it relates to landing scoring blows. 3. Evasive tactics in themselves are meaningless if
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