LET me begin the year by featuring a wonderful book intended as a gift by one of your fellow Last Rounders, Mr. John Pope.
It?s entitled ?The Savage Science of Streetfighting: Applying the Lessons of Championship Boxing to Serious Street Survival? by Ned Beaumont (Paladin Press, 2001).
Off the bat, Beuamont issues a warning after you?ve filtered through the table of contents, that the manual is ?not intended as a substitute for instruction and training in boxing, the martial arts, self-defense or physical conditioning.?
Indeed, while it makes no such pretense, this book gives you a practical, no non-nonsense approach to actual street fighting.
BOXING IS BEST. The author is quite adamant about a boxing match being different from an actual streetfight. By the latter, he is referring to ?bar battles, street-stompings, and back-alley batterings.?
But his mantra is quite clear: Learning how to box is still the best preparation for a real-world fight. Bueamont argues that: ?The ability to take a punch, as developed in the full-contact sparring ring of every boxing gym, is the essential quality that can help you survive a serious brawl. Also, the hard work that makes up every boxer?s training builds a high level of physical fitness?one of the best weapons to take into a life-or-death struggle.?
APPROACH. In the book, the author discusses power punching, knockouts, the secret punches of some of the greatest boxers in history, counterpunching, advanced defensive skills, learning to survive in the street and some training methods.
Through it all, his approach is simple and pragmatic. Consider this advice on why you should learn how to punch with KO power:
?Streetfights, however, are all about surprise. They start with little or no warning. Your adversary may be someone with years of training, or none at all. He?s liable to be outside your weight class, bigger or smaller. It may be hard to tell what style of fighting he?ll favor, whether roundhouse rights or karate kicks to the crotch.?
?But at the same time your adversary in a streetfight probably doesn?t know that you are trained to punch with KO power?so it?s easy to surprise someone like that with a clean combination culminating in a knockout blow.?
TECHNIQUE. One of my favorite parts is when he suggests how a boxer has an advantage over other disciplines in a streetfight, especially against a kicker:
?The first thing for a boxer facing a kicker to understand is that he begins with an advantage: speed?The boxer?s hands will always strike faster than a kicker?s feet…?
?Because of the advantages of speed, timing, and range available to the fistfighter, kickers are not the trained fighters boxers most need to fear. Grapplers, I think, are far more troublesome opponents for boxers.?
UFC 92. Some of the lessons embodied in this book can readily be seen during UFC 92 a few Sundays ago. While of course, they are not streetfights, mixed martial arts matches are about as close to real fighting as we can get.
Frank Mir utilized his improved boxing skills to stop the legendary Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Master Antonio ?Minotauro? Noguiera for the first time in the latter?s career.
Ditto with ?Rampage? Jackson, who scored a picture-perfect left hook to avenge his previous losses to Wanderlei Silva.
I know I?m partial to boxing but such bias is not without basis. Unless they change the rules soon and start mixed-martial arts fights on the ground, it?s always helpful to shore up on your boxing skills. Otherwise, before you even get to apply those nifty ground moves, you might already be knocked-out cold.
LAST ROUND. It?s on Mobeli Craft Inc.?s Edwin Tero who recently celebrated his birthday. Cheers!
