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Mayweather vs Pacquiao: The Importance of the Lead Foot in a Fight with Opposing Stance By Reagan A. Loberternos PhilBoxing.com Fri, 01 May 2015  Tungod, Inabanga, Bohol ? Less than 3 more days to go before the most awaited and highly anticipated boxing event in the very rich history of the sport. On the eve of May 2nd, the fighting pride of the Philippines will try to do what 47 before him had failed. That is, to beat the self-proclaimed best ever, Floyd Mayweather Jr on the squared circle. One very interesting dynamic of the fight is their contrasting stance, which will be very crucial for both Floyd and Manny. Floyd Mayweather is an Orthodox fighter, a stance wherein the lead foot is the left one. This means that he is a fighter with his right hand as the stronger hand and is carried behind the left hand. In this stance, the left hand is used more commonly for jabs while the right hand is used for power punches. Contrastingly, Manny Pacquiao is a Southpaw and therefore leads with his right foot. His left hand is his stronger hand and he carries it behind his right hand. Elite boxers like Floyd and Manny have almost the same power for both hands. This has given them tremendous advantage over their opponents because it is more difficult to lookout for two hands that can hurt than just a single one. However, the stance more often than not stays the same throughout the course of a boxer?s career. That is why elite trainers focus more on an opponent?s stance when analysing a fighter they are preparing a game plan for. Though to keep the element of surprise, these trainers tend not to talk about it much (if not at all) before the fight. For a boxing match with contrasting stance, the role of how a boxer positions his lead foot against his opponent?s lead foot has been widely overlooked. Most analyses have been focused mostly on the risk of having head butts. For this fight, the talk is mostly on how Floyd ?allegedly? has a hard time with Southpaws in the past. On Manny?s part, the talk is on how he struggles with elite counterpunchers. Only a few analyses, however, have been made on the importance of the positioning of a boxer?s lead foot against his opponent?s lead foot. Conventional wisdom tells us that Orthodox boxers are considered to be most vulnerable for the left hand straight. Comparably, Southpaws are considered to be most vulnerable for the right hand straight. But there is more to it than just that. How the lead foot is positioned creates that leverage to land that straight right hand (for Orthodox boxers) or straight left hand (for Southpaws). Positioning the lead foot of a boxer to the outside of his opponent allows the boxer to align his best punch while moving away from his opponent?s best punch. With his cat-quick foot speed and side-to-side movement, Manny has been very effective with this. This strategy is a double edged sword. Besides allowing Manny to land his straight left (which is his best punch) effectively, it also instantaneously allows him to evade his opponent?s right straight counter (which is his best punch). He initiates this move by squaring his shoulders in front of his opponent and then immediately throwing his straight left. This is not Manny?s most powerful punch. But it is his most effective when it lands. This strategy by Manny can be avoided, however. This is by not allowing Manny to have his lead foot on the outside and continuously circling away from his left hand. Shane Mosley has frustrated Manny at times in the later rounds of their fight. But Mosley didn?t throw enough effective punches as much as Manuel Marquez did in all of his fights against Manny. Let us take for example the knockout punch Marquez delivered Manny. It wasn?t just Manny?s recklessness that led to his doom. The very slight shift of Marquez? left foot to the outside created the perfect alignment for his right straight to land on Manny?s chin. And the rest was history. In his eight professional fights against Southpaws, Mayweather on his part did not typically incorporate the tactics that allowed Marquez success against Manny. Oftentimes, he allows his Southpaw opponents to position their lead foot outside which led to the few cleanest punches he has received in his career. The fact of the matter is that the famous ?shoulder roll? is designed primarily for Orthodox opponents. This defensive move allows Floyd to dodge both the combination punches. This is not the case however with Southpaw opponents. The ?shoulder roll? cannot dodge straight lefts. Unlike Marquez however, Floyd uses inside fighting with less movement and some clinching to frustrate his opponents (sometimes he also uses his elbows to ward off his opponent). In this position, the lead foot positioning is put to irrelevance. The most effective punches in this position will be short hooks, body shots and uppercuts. This fits well with Floyd because of his great cardio and strength, commonly known as ?walk you down? move (Floyd is expected to be the bigger and heavier man on May 2nd). In his most recent fights against Southpaws, Floyd used his reach advantage by throwing the lead hand jab to keep opponents constantly at bay. This is different if you compare it to conventional techniques employed by Marquez against Southpaws, which is to circle to the left and instead move counter-clockwise. In this position, Floyd allowed himself to throw a right hand straight from either a neutral lead foot position or an inside angle and immediately ducks down very low to his right side to avoid the straight left counter. But this does not mean Floyd isn?t capable of doing it the conventional way like Marquez. He has shown he can do it. But as Freddie Roach aptly put it, ?every fighter has his tendencies.? They always go back to what?s comfortable to them. It remains to be seen, however, come fight night whose strategy will prove successful against arguably the best adversary each has faced in their long illustrious careers. That is what?s so compelling about this fight. Nobody is ever sure what?s going to happen. So get ready to be treated to the most exciting chess match you have ever witnessed! Click here to view a list of other articles written by Reagan A. Loberternos.  |
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