What's your experience with this statement ?

Can good timing really beat someone with superior hand and footspeed ?

What's your experience with this statement ?

Can good timing really beat someone with superior hand and footspeed ?


yes cause it can set them off pace

One thing it can also make up for is power. Ali didn't have a whole bunch of power, but what he did was fire off shots with his opponent coming in to maximize the effect with two momentums coming torward one another.

This is a touchy statement, but it is somewhat accurate. Timing can make up for anything except losing. Timing leads to potential good counter punching, which can mean the difference in a fight. However, If you dont have the TIME to have good TIMING because your opponent is Roy Jones fast, then it doesn't really matter. Also, Foreman was an excellent example of power over timing. He got rocked plenty and lots of his punches were slipped/counter punched, but his power was ridiculous.

In a sport like boxing, rules were made to be broken. Timing can and does conquer speed but sometimes speed can destroy timing, if you know how to vary your speed and punch output to confuse the hell out of the opponent.

In a sport like boxing, rules were made to be broken. Timing can and does conquer speed but sometimes speed can destroy timing, if you know how to vary your speed and punch output to confuse the hell out of the opponent.

That's just another form of timing though.

I come from fencing, and I'd mentioned this in another thread, but in fencing, guys get hypnotized by the sound of the blades clashing, and fall into a rhythm. I was a musician for awhile, and it made it very easy to anticipate and counter once they fell into time.

In boxing, some guys get into a rhythm -- not a bad thing -- and stay there -- a bad thing. There are some guys at my gym who are faster than me, but their combos come at the same rhythm every time, and slipping and/or counterpunching becomes very simple once you get their pace worked out. Even though they're "faster," you can still sting them on the upbeat. The really good ones have different paces to their combos -- that's when it gets really hard. For me, anyway.

That's why it's good to practice many different speeds on the speed bag.

Cheers for the replies fellas :)

In boxing, some guys get into a rhythm -- not a bad thing -- and stay there -- a bad thing. There are some guys at my gym who are faster than me, but their combos come at the same rhythm every time, and slipping and/or counterpunching becomes very simple once you get their pace worked out. Even though they're "faster," you can still sting them on the upbeat. The really good ones have different paces to their combos -- that's when it gets really hard. For me, anyway.

Exactly! You shouldn't become predictable with anything in boxing. Upper body movement, punch rhythm, etc.

Exactly! You shouldn't become predictable with anything in boxing. Upper body movement, punch rhythm, etc.

I want to add a little more to this. I was shadowboxing this morning (no, I won't post a vid :p ) and it occurred to me that maybe the reason that guys fall into a rhythm is that they are always throwing as fast as they can. Which, in a way, makes sense, but if you're throwing at top speed all the time, it's really easy to get locked into a rhythm. I have a tendency to "float" my right hook (southpaw), to kind of let it drift a hair slower, especially after a couple of hard jabs; if my opponent anticipates it and goes to parry, sometimes he'll be all the way back into his guard when it connects and I'll land a nice one over his ear. I have to "pull" it when it lands (lean back or sidestep and crack the whip), because it's not as "quick." Make sense?

Yeah, I know what you mean. I try to go normal speed and out of nowhere go as fast as I can. Like 1 slow jab to body then 2 fast to the head.