For those of you who never have heard of Prince Naseem Hamed, he is a figher out of the UK that is TOTALLY entertaining to watch.
First few things to know:
He is small.
He is a prick.
Arrogant doesn't even begin to describe him.
He is one of the most coordinated fighters I have ever seen.
He moves like lightning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLXcgZ84ndk
Now, I wanna talk about this video a bit.
First: Why all the theatrics? Why ride in on a planaquin?
Anyone who has been in a fight (street or competitive) knows the pre-fight jitters. I posted a interesting link about Tyson prefight a while ago.
The basics is this: EVERY fighter is scared shitless before a fight. Even Tyson was. Ali was. All of them were.
Prince Naseem is doing this to try to convince his opponent he is not afraid. He uses his cocky behavior to mask his fear. Can you think of any ways to use false emotions to ward of danger? Do you remember the "ATM Crazy Guy" defense?
There's a punch at 0:39. Does it look familiar? It's kind of a Jolt when you look at the shoulder rotation and drop step (that you really cant see). The dancing probably had this guy off guard, but the range is what landed the punch!
At 0:43ish you see a strange combo... What is really going on? He is throwing wild punches to get the opponent to put up a guard the blocks his view. Prince takes this oppertunity to get to a side. If you could punch the backs of heads in boxing, this guy would be a pile of mush by 45.
Right at 2:29, he finds an opponent routed. This guy is in total defensive mode and is hiding for his life. He is against the ropes and just trying to survive the round. Does he give him room to breathe? No. A MASSIVE combo that just burns the guy to hell comes at him. The guy has his back to a wall and cannot free himself. Prince understands forward attacking!
2:58ish: The guy gets KOed... however, the body falls right at Prince... If this was a grapple might Prince have been tackled? Prince moves out of the way to make sure that this lump of human hits the ground with the maximum impact. No body to brace him. Also, the nano seconds that the whole thing happens in is confusing. So moving out of the way at an opponent coming at you is always good practice.
3:33ish: Wow... Just watch it. It ALMOST looks fake... Amazing speed, reflexes, and footwork!
Final Comments:
Leaping: Why does he leap at his opponent so much? Well.. Much like Dempsey, Prince is using body weight to launch himself like a missile at his opponents. Yes this is risky, but do you think such powerful forward movements have any place on the street?
The constant hand movement: This guy has his hands all over the place. Taunting, dancing, spinning, punching and all other manners of movement are constantly going through his arms. Why? Much like the Irish/LPR/Pancration we studied, movement is not only distracting, but it keeps the opponent guessing about what they will do next... of course, this includes punching your lights out!
See you in St. Paul!
He has obviously found attacking on the X lines, especially the low ones, are a big payday. Most of his knockouts come from those low lines, as does his fade to the right side ambush shot. He sells the feint by a relax and lean, then POW!
ReplyDeletePrince does fall into relying on the rules of boxing, such as leaning back his head and leaving the hips forward as well as flicking the gloves at his opponents' heads.
I agree with you Reed, he is clearly a master of range and angles. Also, excellent off line and circular movement.
Agree on everything Tristan! He is a master of the game! Much like any fighter, we can pull good lessons. Good observations!
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