HOW TO WATCH BOXING: TAKING AWAY THE JAB
distance. If the distance is already broken, then the jab ceases to be a weapon. In talking with trainer Robert Garcia, he mentioned two of his fighters who were successful at breaking the range of a jabber by getting in close: Brandon Rios and Marcos Maidana. Maidana had unconventional movements and threw punch combinations in unusual sequences. In addition, his underrated foot speed allowed him to get close to a fighter, often with relative ease. “Maidana wasn’t a counterpuncher,” said Garcia. “He was so difficult and so awkward that he took not only the jab away, but often everything else, too. Everyone had a difficult time against Maidana.” Brandon Rios was a more traditional pressure fighter. He didn’t have the foot speed of Maidana, but he had the confidence and chin to keep pressing forward, eventually breaking the range of the jabber so that he could do his own damage in close. “Rios had that high guard to block or catch jabs as he was coming forward,” said Garcia. “A high guard can be very effective. But you have to have a great stance and great positioning to take away the jab like he did. A jab can easily take you out of position, to lead you to making mistakes. You have to have great strength and footwork to stand strong against the jab, to not let it frustrate you or move you around. “But Rios had a specific mindset, too. He never thought a jab was going to hurt him. He was good at taking away the jab because he wasn’t afraid of it. He was one of those guys who kept coming and wasn’t bothered by the jab.” COUNTERING A fighter can still keep a pocket and be successful at taking away the jab. A great counterpuncher can force a jabber to keep that punch at home. And there are many potential ways to successfully counter a jab. Trainer Stephen “Breadman” Edwards still marvels at how a 5-foot-6 Dwight Muhammad Qawi would be able to take away the jabs of much bigger and longer light heavyweights, cruiserweights and heavyweights. Furthermore, even though Qawi had the shorter arms in almost all of his matchups, he often was the one who established supremacy with his jab. Qawi perfected a technique of ducking under a jab and firing off his own as a counter. “Your jab would go over his head,” said Edwards, “but Qawi’s jab would go right into your guard. He would constantly jab guys who were six-one or six-two and out- jab them.” Edwards is also a proponent of a fighter jabbing with a good jabber to keep the good jabber occupied on defense. Edwards cites Ken Norton as a great example of this. Even though Norton’s jab was not considered to be on the same level as
By no means is the above an exhaustive list on how to take away the jab. There are other techniques that can be successful. Some fighters will position themselves to the opposite side of their opponent’s jab hand to take away the punch and make them win with their rear hand. Roberto Duran was a master at hitting the jab arm or shoulder to try and weaken the opponent and render him unable to throw the jab consistently over the course of a fight. But this is a good start in understanding how a fighter can neutralize the punch. CONCEPT IN PRACTICE: BERNARD HOPKINS VS. KELLY PAVLIK (2008) Kelly Pavlik entered his fight with Bernard Hopkins with a world of confidence. He had recently defeated Jermain Taylor twice and had established himself as the top fighter at middleweight. He had a 17-year age advantage over Hopkins (26 to 43), and Hopkins was coming off a loss to Joe Calzaghe in a close fight where Hopkins struggled to let his hands go with regularity. Pavlik was viewed by many as too fresh and too powerful in the matchup, despite the fight being contested at a catchweight of 170 pounds. Pavlik was essentially a two-punch fighter: a jab and a right hand. For Pavlik, everything seemed to work off the jab. He would often double and triple his jab in order to land his right hand. Hopkins employed a variety of the tactics delineated in this article to neutralize the jab. Primarily, Hopkins operated as an ambush fighter during the bout. He was well out of range for Pavlik to land the punch. Rarely stationary, Hopkins wouldn’t allow himself to become a hittable target for Pavlik’s jab. Hopkins also believed in being first through a lot of the fight. Starting out of range, he would dart in with lead punches. Hopkins quickly grasped that Pavlik’s jab functioned only as a lead punch and not as a counter. Thus, Hopkins would enter the action behind a straight right, a left hook or a combination, which often would include the right hand-left uppercut or right hand-left hook. He would also double up on punches to the head and body, especially with straight rights or left hooks. His punch variety kept Pavlik guessing. As the fight progressed, Hopkins also flashed dazzling counters. He’d counter Pavlik’s jab with the straight right over the jab or roll under the jab and connect with a left hook to the body. He even would lead with the jab, realizing that Pavlik wasn’t prepared to counter. If the distance was broken, Hopkins would tie up. In short, Hopkins displayed a masterclass in how to take away the jab. Utilizing all the tricks of the trade and every punch in his arsenal, Hopkins was able to neutralize one of Pavlik’s primary weapons. He would win 117-109, 118-108 and 119-106 on the scorecards.
The short and squat Qawi was renowned for out-jabbing much larger men to set up his attacks.
Muhammad Ali’s or Larry Holmes’, Norton found significant success in those matchups and was able to establish footholds in those fights by forcing them to defend his own jab. TIMING Here is where things can get really interesting. Good jabbers can be defeated by being beaten to the punch or by their own jabs being countered so that they are reluctant to throw. Thus, one can hypothetically take away the jab by being first or by being last. Garcia brings up a great example where “being first” led to a decisive victory: “My dad (Eduardo Garcia) trained Fernando Vargas, and Vargas was facing Ike Quartey, who had one of the best jabs in the sport. And Fernando beat him to the jab and won the fight. I think that’s the best way to beat a guy with a great jab. You got to be first. You got to be faster. Beat him to it.”
Edwards provided an example where being first was to a fighter’s detriment: “I believe that Emanuel Steward had one of the best game plans of all time for the second Bowe-Holyfield fight. Every time Bowe would jab, Holyfield would catch the jab with his rear jab and then come back with a double jab. He would also double jab Bowe to the head and body at times. That creates confusion in a guy’s mind, because now he has to defend multiple areas. If, over time, Bowe keeps getting countered, he’s going to try something else, which is exactly what Holyfield wanted in that fight. He got Bowe, a great jabber, to move off his jab and on to something else.”
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