BoxRec

I sometimes hear people say things like "He's eastern European but fights like a Mexican" or "He fights like a yank".

I must admit, i don't tend to pick on a nation's or continent's boxing tendencies. So for the posters with more knowledge on this subject, what are the tell-tale signs of some of the top boxing styles?

British & Irish
American/Canadian
Mexican
South American
Central European
Eastern European
Japanese
Cuban

Here's some handy pointers:

British & Irish - often distinguishable by a lack of head movement
American/Canadian - 'smooth'
Mexican - 'all-action'
Eastern European - 'upright'
Japanese - 'brave'
Cuban - 'slick'
Ghanian - 'teak tough'

Hard to generalise but a lot of the South Americans were typically big punching, swarming, wide shot throwing brawlers c.f. Ricardo Torres, Jorge Castro, Juan Roldan, JC Vasquez and to a lesser degree Antonio Esparragoza.

Mexicans typically hook with both hands, especially to the body/liver c.f. Ruben Olivares, JC Chavez Snr

The post Soviet Bloc Eastern European/East Germans were typically well schooled, jabbing one-two type boxers c.f. Henry Maske

orbtastic wrote:Hard to generalise but a lot of the South Americans were typically big punching, swarming, wide shot throwing brawlers c.f. Ricardo Torres, Jorge Castro, Juan Roldan, JC Vasquez and to a lesser degree Antonio Esparragoza.

Mexicans typically hook with both hands, especially to the body/liver c.f. Ruben Olivares, JC Chavez Snr

The post Soviet Bloc Eastern European/East Germans were typically well schooled, jabbing one-two type boxers c.f. Henry Maske

What about us Brits? I really can't see many parallels that link our fighters.

I dunno, there's something in it. I was only thinking about it yesterday. When I was being taught "how" to box, I was told to bounce on the balls of my feet and throw the jab constantly. It always felt slightly alien to me and never really got the bottom of why they taught it, maybe to stop you relying on planting your feet and trying to land a haymaker.

If you watch Richie Woodhall, he's absolutely textbook, even down to the bouncing. High guard, everything off the jab. Front foot pointing forward, back foot slightly wide and pointed outwards.

Stracey and Minter are the same.

danamba7 wrote:

orbtastic wrote:Hard to generalise but a lot of the South Americans were typically big punching, swarming, wide shot throwing brawlers c.f. Ricardo Torres, Jorge Castro, Juan Roldan, JC Vasquez and to a lesser degree Antonio Esparragoza.

Mexicans typically hook with both hands, especially to the body/liver c.f. Ruben Olivares, JC Chavez Snr

The post Soviet Bloc Eastern European/East Germans were typically well schooled, jabbing one-two type boxers c.f. Henry Maske

What about us Brits? I really can't see many parallels that link our fighters.

I think generally we aren't as well taught as the yanks, we aren't taught little defensive tricks as a rule even our best defensive fighters rely on reflexes .it's a bit like football where we aren't as comfortable on the ball as say the Spanish .look at khan loads of speed and decent power but him under pressure and he's in trouble even our best boxers were never that correct like calzaghe great natural gifts rather than well schooled .

stevedoc wrote:

danamba7 wrote:

orbtastic wrote:Hard to generalise but a lot of the South Americans were typically big punching, swarming, wide shot throwing brawlers c.f. Ricardo Torres, Jorge Castro, Juan Roldan, JC Vasquez and to a lesser degree Antonio Esparragoza.

Mexicans typically hook with both hands, especially to the body/liver c.f. Ruben Olivares, JC Chavez Snr

The post Soviet Bloc Eastern European/East Germans were typically well schooled, jabbing one-two type boxers c.f. Henry Maske

What about us Brits? I really can't see many parallels that link our fighters.

I think generally we aren't as well taught as the yanks, we aren't taught little defensive tricks as a rule even our best defensive fighters rely on reflexes .it's a bit like football where we aren't as comfortable on the ball as say the Spanish .look at khan loads of speed and decent power but him under pressure and he's in trouble even our best boxers were never that correct like calzaghe great natural gifts rather than well schooled .

Hmm it's interesting. I agree with your examples. Strange though as we still seem to punch above our weight in boxing, unlike football. Definitely the best boxing nation in western Europe and top 3 in the whole of Europe.

It could be argued that some of the more successful British fighters of recent years haven't used the typical, high hands, upright, stepping in and out of range, british style.
Naz, Calzaghe, Froch, Hatton etc..
More recently, Selby and Degale.
Lewis also, though he learned to box in Canada so that's understandable.

keirw wrote:It could be argued that some of the more successful British fighters of recent years haven't used the typical, high hands, upright, stepping in and out of range, british style.
Naz, Calzaghe, Froch, Hatton etc..
More recently, Selby and Degale.
Lewis also, though he learned to box in Canada so that's understandable.

Haye as well.

Interesting that this has been brought up recently. Did you see the Cuban that just fought Jean Pascal?

As soon as I heard Cuban the preconceptions kicked in. I was expecting an Erislandy Lara type kid, plenty of movement, fast counters. He fights nothing like the typical Cuban style, he's very aggressive, quite busy. Looking forward to watching him again.

Any others you can think of that completely defy the preconception of what their style of boxing should be?

This is how I see it:

British & Irish - Basic boxer
American/Canadian - Not a single style (Black - same as Cuban. White - either brawler or upright 1-2)
Mexican - Brawler volume puncher
South American - Power puncher (Argentinian - brawler power puncher)
Central European - Upright, high guard, 1-2
Eastern European - Not a single style (Russia - technical power puncher, Ukraine - offensive slick, Caucasus - brawler power puncher)
Japanese - Brawler volume puncher
Cuban - Defensive slick, crab stance, foot and hand speed

stevedoc wrote:

danamba7 wrote:

orbtastic wrote:Hard to generalise but a lot of the South Americans were typically big punching, swarming, wide shot throwing brawlers c.f. Ricardo Torres, Jorge Castro, Juan Roldan, JC Vasquez and to a lesser degree Antonio Esparragoza.

Mexicans typically hook with both hands, especially to the body/liver c.f. Ruben Olivares, JC Chavez Snr

The post Soviet Bloc Eastern European/East Germans were typically well schooled, jabbing one-two type boxers c.f. Henry Maske

What about us Brits? I really can't see many parallels that link our fighters.

I think generally we aren't as well taught as the yanks, we aren't taught little defensive tricks as a rule even our best defensive fighters rely on reflexes .it's a bit like football where we aren't as comfortable on the ball as say the Spanish .look at khan loads of speed and decent power but him under pressure and he's in trouble even our best boxers were never that correct like calzaghe great natural gifts rather than well schooled .

Spot on with that I think It happens time and time again a Brit getting bashed up because of a bad defence! Hatton comes to mind great coming forward, shi.t defence! which was eventually brutally exposed! (Hatton had made a load of money by then so don't really matter I suppose!)

What about us Brits? I really can't see many parallels that link our fighters.[/quote]

I think generally we aren't as well taught as the yanks, we aren't taught little defensive tricks as a rule even our best defensive fighters rely on reflexes .it's a bit like football where we aren't as comfortable on the ball as say the Spanish .look at khan loads of speed and decent power but him under pressure and he's in trouble even our best boxers were never that correct like calzaghe great natural gifts rather than well schooled .[/quote]


Spot on with that I think It happens time and time again a Brit getting bashed up because of a bad defence! Hatton comes to mind great coming forward, shi.t defence! which was eventually brutally exposed! (Hatton had made a load of money by then so don't really matter I suppose!)[/quote]

I think it starts from the amateurs ,it might of changed now but I went on a couple of training camps and courses with the England team when robin Reid and Alan temple were about and I don't remember anything to do with defence other than keep your hands up .

Webbo911 wrote:Interesting that this has been brought up recently. Did you see the Cuban that just fought Jean Pascal?

As soon as I heard Cuban the preconceptions kicked in. I was expecting an Erislandy Lara type kid, plenty of movement, fast counters. He fights nothing like the typical Cuban style, he's very aggressive, quite busy. Looking forward to watching him again.

Any others you can think of that completely defy the preconception of what their style of boxing should be?

There's two Thais who stand out here. Amnat Ruenroeng and Stamp Kiatniwat. Thais are typically high guard, come forward, apply pressure type of fighters but Amnat is a slippery dirty boxer-spoiler whilst Stamp is a counter punching boxer.

Miguel Vazquez is nothing like a typical Mexican

I never go in for stereotypes - its a waste of time - my wife however, like most French women, loves to criticise foreigners and once she starts she just wont rap up!

Buncey cracked me up with his off the cuff dialogue on Cubans the other night! His (slightly tongue in cheek) gist was that they are so happy to get to America and live the American dream (overcoming big, big hard-ships to get out of Cuba) that they then take it seriously easy and rest up having seemingly achieved their goal. Was on the early hours show for Kovalev fight, I think with Steve Lillis. Very funny show, top boxing presenters.

South Koreans--physically strong, face-first brawlers

Talking about Koreans their "big hope" Kyoo Hwan Hwang seems to fit that stereotype too much. Really talented kid at range...but god damnit he's an idiot!

It depends where you train. I can more or less what a kid is going to be like from his amateur club, our lot are left hook happy, Hunslet very well schooled. The Ingle gang, Unity, it either works or doesn't, you can't generalise. I watch loads of amateurs and it's changed rapidly.

mickey1975 wrote:It depends where you train. I can more or less what a kid is going to be like from his amateur club, our lot are left hook happy, Hunslet very well schooled. The Ingle gang, Unity, it either works or doesn't, you can't generalise. I watch loads of amateurs and it's changed rapidly.

Do you think British boxing is improving on the whole? We seem to have plenty of prospects coming through.

crusader wrote:South Koreans--physically strong, face-first brawlers

head-butts!

danamba7 wrote:

mickey1975 wrote:It depends where you train. I can more or less what a kid is going to be like from his amateur club, our lot are left hook happy, Hunslet very well schooled. The Ingle gang, Unity, it either works or doesn't, you can't generalise. I watch loads of amateurs and it's changed rapidly.

Do you think British boxing is improving on the whole? We seem to have plenty of prospects coming through.

It's becoming one sport. In the seniors, it's a 3 round pro fight in my eyes. The old computer scoring speedsters are struggling now.