HOW TO WATCH BOXING: CUTTING OFF THE RING By Brian Harty
P re-fight analysts often mention “cutting off the ring” as a key to victory for one fighter or the other, but there’s rarely much explanation of what it is or how it’s done. That’s partly because the concept seems so obvious: If somebody you’re attempting to hit isn’t volunteering to stand still, you steer them into places that limit their mobility. Whenever they try to go somewhere you don’t want them to go, you cut them off. While that works fine as a description for road rage, cutting off the ring is more complicated. It’s not just about bullying your opponent into a corner or heading them off at the pass. Rather, it’s a gradual, cerebral process in which multiple skills converge and allow a boxer to write the entire narrative of a fight – most importantly, how it ends. Spotting a fighter who does it well starts before they even get to the cutting part. “I see them reading the opponent, first of all,” says trainer Abel Sanchez. He mentions Orlin Norris (as well as his brother, Hall of Famer Terry Norris) and future Hall of Famer Gennadiy Golovkin as some of the exceptionally talented ring- cutters he has coached. “They were so calm in their way of going about it that
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