The Footwork of Napoles and Louis

[The Old LefHook]

I happen to agree with Humean. Louis is the wrong guy for a footwork advertisement. He was slow of foot and had much difficulty against great footwork. Joe Walcott mangled him their first fight and lost the decision.

I don't know where all this historical revisisionism is coming from. Historical revisionisim is usually good around here where there is so much making up of history. I have watched plenty of Louis. He may have had very deliberate footwork but there was nothing great about it. It was slow motion. It was the same basic footwork you could find in a thousand other fighters. No boxer ever went around wishing for Joe Louis's footwork, and I think this contention that he was some kind of master of footwork is laughable. It was Louis's extreme punching technique that won fights for him. His open-ring footwork was an actual handicap in my opinion. It was basic flatfootedness with excellent leverage. In close he was great.

Did I say his footwork was mediocre? No, it was just basic footwork, nothing special.

[Humean]

I do think its true that Louis didn't cut the ring off, then again, I am not sure if he needed to cut the ring off. Cutting the ring off and cornering an opponent creates a chance to land punches but actually there are some bad habits that can develop, like trying to chase a puncher, being very obvious about an attack, telegraphing intentions, etc. Louis was more patient, more explosive and more deliberate and could catch you at anytime.

Also, agreed on the lateral movement... when a guy moves excessively with lateral movement they sacrifice stability of the punching base by disaligning the upper body. Some guys with very quick feet can realign so fast it doesn't matter so much....Ali for example. Some guys used these movements when they were on the back leg so they had plenty of time to react, for example, james Toney, Mayweather and Jack Johnson. lateral movement skills changed when guys squared up more and gloves got bigger partially because the risk factor went down with getting tagged with a hard punch.

If Louis had been competent at cutting the ring off then he'd have gotten to his opponents quicker than he did and the lateral movement would have helped with getting more angles of attack and it would have helped him defensively too. I think that if there had been some better fighters in his era at heavyweight then the limitations of his style would have been clearer.

[The Old LefHook]

... when a guy moves excessively with lateral movement they sacrifice stability of the punching base by disaligning the upper body. Some guys with very quick feet can realign so fast it doesn't matter so much....Ali for example.

Very good. This is a fact of physics, not an opinion.

[billeau2]

Very good. This is a fact of physics, not an opinion.

Interestingly enough lateral overcompensations is a great way to judge mediocrity in the martial arts. Its often used for parlor type tricks when people cannot understand how to properly position the body and...cannot develop the timing necessary to execute a proper body movement.