Salt Lake City Boxing Club

Shadowboxing. Learn to love it. It’s the foundation for everything you do in the ring. And remember, swing, baby.

One of the chief adages of boxing: make ‘em miss, make ‘em pay. There are three basic methods of defense: move your feet, move your head, and blocking. Often these overlap and there are permutations of all of them, but generally speaking, that’s it. here is working on sitting in the pocket using upper body movement in the pocket to avoid being hit and create leverage on her counters. As always, when you’re done punching, vacate the area.

Micky Ward was the master of the 3-7, touching with hook up top and digging to the liver. Working it here with . She’s a lefty, so it’s the spleen rather than the liver. Not as damaging as a liver shot, but it’ll do.

The left shovel hook to the liver is an absolute must for lefties. See Lomachenko’s body shot KO of Jorge Linares for a great example. Here , a natural righty turned lefty due to injury, is learning the basics: foundation, head movement, weight distribution, arm angle, and letting leverage do the work, not main strength. Our own used this shot to great advantage in his recent regional GG championship bout. If you’re a lefty, you gotta learn this. ching

The key to this combination is not overloading the hook off the jab or overcommitting to the front foot too soon. Both the jab and the hook are decoys to make your opponent reach for jab and turn away from the hook right into the cross. The right hand is where the combination is going. Tap tap bam! Small steps and throw the right hand from in front of the chin, not from the cheek.

That’s all it is. Work. Day after day. Drilling the fundamentals.

Not getting hit takes practice. Small movements, short steps, parrying, blocking, shoulder roll. Punching is easy. Keeping your composure under fire is not. Defense is essential. Don’t neglect it.

Another strap! Congratulations, Edgar! Love working with you, brother.