In All Honesty Whoever Advised Berto On the Shoulder Roll is a Joke

[MikeRo1972]

A righty should never implement a Philly Shell defense vs a Southpaw. The torso is exposed to left hooks. It's Boxing 101 really. Either Berto's cornermen is useless or Berto's stubbornness almost got him killed. Either way its on them...dummies. There's a reason Floyd is reluctant to fight lefties. He's a master at it and could probably pull it off vs a lefty because his arms are so damn long but he rather not even mess with a lefty. I agree with a previous poster, its almost like he saw Broner do it and said F it, I can do that too.

[Sin City]

it's called the philly shell defense

it's effective for counterpunching and berto has the speed and power to be a devastating counterpuncher

the philly shell isn't effective against southpaws.. you saw how he was leaning in to the left hand? it's because the shoulder roll is designed to defend against right handed fighters.

[BostonGuy]

To me his left hand looked like it was 'folded' up next to his body. As a result, his jab was very ineffective; he wasn't able to throw it naturally and with any speed.

[LeG00N]

He saw what Broner did to Demarco and he tried to replicate it. He thought to himself "Guerrero is a slow southpaw exactly like Demarco and i'm young and slick like Broner" what he didn't realize is Demarco is garbage, Guerrero is a real boxer with real skills and he himself is significantly worse than Broner.

[AztecWanker]

Reminded me of Kevin Mitchell putting up an even ****tier shoulder roll vs. Katsidis and getting KTFO immediately after.

[ShoulderRoll]

A righty should never implement a Philly Shell defense vs a Southpaw.

Broner implemented it great against the southpaw DeMarco.

[thuggery]

I have been trying to quantify it. Obviously Berto was the superior fighter, but who the heck told him to come out with the shoulderroll. Its like having Tom Brady at QB and deciding against the best running d in the league to bench Brady and just run the Wild Cat for the first quarter...when youve never ran the Wildcat before. It literally makes 0 sense. You never do the shoulder roll before and then decide to break it out against a southpaw who even besides being a southpaw doesn't really fit that defensive strategy. If Berto just doesnt get crushed those first 2 rounds and isnt forced to fight blind the whole fight he wins easy. I mean maybe in memory of one of the greatest trainers of all time passing the two corners agreed to implement the worst possible fight plans, but other than that I am at a loss with both sides in this fight.

Stopped reading right there. Let's be honest, Robert was the superior fighter and would have beat Berto regardless. Berto is no where near the superior fighter.

[Evil_Meat]

lol this reminds me of de la hoya's epic fail of utilizing the shoulder roll early on against Vargas, which IMO is worse since Vargas ain't even a southpaw.

[MikeRo1972]

Broner implemented it great against the southpaw DeMarco.

Yes, and he did it beautifully. I should've included Broner when I mentioned Mayweather could pull it off. That's a big reason fight fans came away impressed with Broner after his last win. Broner and Mayweather also have world class speed of which Berto does not.

[LA_2_Vegas]

It was a terrible decision. Coming out to try a new style in a big fight? He's had so many tune-ups in his career if he wanted to work on this before he had time to do it.

You can't use that style to stand in one spot or walk down an opponent unless you are adept at fighting inside. I mean, you better be a damn master on the inside to even think about it on that level. He already had an issue with southpaws as it was and now they compounded that by employing a style that does have its limitations against southpaws if used by someone who doesn't know what they're doing. On top of that, you have to have a certain type of body style at your weight class for it to make sense for you. Once he abandoned it, the fight got a little more competitive but it was too late.

The biggest consequence of that choice was that it GAVE AWAY his jab completely. His jab is a major weapon of his. He didn't know how to throw it from that stance and there was nothing stopping Robert from walking right in.