Is JMM really the most technical fighter in the sport?

Bernard Hopkins. Jmm is my dog, but he blocks shots with his face. this ^^^^ plus JMM has been outboxed twice

Bernard Hopkins. Jmm is my dog, but he blocks shots with his face.

yet he loses to a basic 1-2 guy like Taylor......TWICE. Yet JMM gets outboxed by Chris John. What's your point? Most people feel Hopkins won both fights. He also beat Kelly Pavlik in more dominating fashion than Sergio Martinez.

Hopkins would have never lost to a guy like Segura. Hopkins sparks a wild brawler like that out with the quickness. Hopkins and Calderon fight very differently and Calderon just fought a guy much bigger than him. Segura is a very good and strong fighter. I don't see the shame in losing to a guy like that, and as big (relatively speaking) as that.

Martinez is another pretty good example of a technical brawler thought he gets away with some things as a southpaw. not so sure about this one ezzzzz, martinez is too unorthodox. he's off balance some and keeps his hands too low. pluss jmm has switched up his style to make it more entertaning, he used to be much more of a pure technician

Martinez is another pretty good example of a technical brawler thought he gets away with some things as a southpaw.

Currently active: Mayweather, Hopkins. JMM is the most cerebral and technical brawler in the game, but he often gets caught with shots he shouldnt, and lets his pride get in the way of his technical game. You never see Hopkins or Floyd doing that.

Anyone who drinks their own piss during training isnt a technical fighter PERIOD. how would that have anything to do with his technique in the ring. that puro haterism. this is only thing pactards have to say about marquez. don't get me wrong i think its a weird thing to do and i sure as hell wouldn't try it but it has absolutely nothing to do with the skill he has. marquez is a great fighter even at the age of 38 and i cant think of many boxers that can still compete at level he does considering his age, especially fighting pepole 10 to 7 years younger than him. i would prefer to see him retire while he's on top because its a shame when great fighters keep fighting and really get hurt at the end of their careers.

well my observations are based on what i saw in their actual fights. maybe they are at par but definitely i saw more technical skills from jmm's game. maybe bhop was busy with his little dirty tactics rather than use his full technical arsenal. that or you consider those tactics as part of the technical aspect of boxing. don't let the roughhouse tactics distract you from things like balance, footwork, distance, timing, and defense. that's technical skills, not just counterpunching and combos (which bhop does well in spots- see the pavlik fight). i would say that bhop's win vs trinidad was as good of a techincal display of boxing ability in an actual fight as jmm's vs anyone, including his draw and L vs manny, all things considered. im not saying jmm is not a hof fighter and a master technician. I'm saying he's not a better technician than bhop, they each have their strengths and weaknesses and are pretty much on par with each other. no one can fuk with bhop's footwork and balance. he looks like he sitting in a chair when he moves around the ring, he never changes his body position. on top of that, bhop is better at starting exchanges as the aggressor. much better, jmm is a better counterpuncher.

of course not BHop is as sound as they get but what dillweed was driving was that if calderon was so technical then no way should he lose to Segura. I was merely pointing out that sometimes really proficient fighters have issues with less than techinical geniuses hell JMM had issue with Diaz before he got him out of there agreed, technical doesn't mean you're gonna spank everyone, lol! I forget to look at who you're responding to sometimes. jmm has issue with kats as well, who's not the toughest puzzle in the sports. i think there are guys like caldy, bhop, floyd, jmm that are a level above. montiel is also an excellent technical fighter (wlad too) and so WAS mijares.

not true, bernard is as technically sound as any fighter today. he is a robot in training and in the ring, he fouls and uses roughhouse tactics more than jmm, but noone is more technically sound. jmm is on par with bhop. good stuff starts around one minute, but its just a media workout well my observations are based on what i saw in their actual fights. maybe they are at par but definitely i saw more technical skills from jmm's game. maybe bhop was busy with his little dirty tactics rather than use his full technical arsenal. that or you consider those tactics as part of the technical aspect of boxing.

The best piss drinker P4P I don't remember him as anything, but a good piss drinker.

first fight was a toss up, I had bhop winning. i'm quite sure you're not saying bhop isn't a great technician though regardless, it's be a hard fight to convince me that there is a fighter out there more technically sound than gnop. for the guy who cries with floyd, technically gifted is not a real term. floyd is a great technician, don't shi t on his technique by calling him gifted. he may not be as technically sound as bhop as far as the basics go, but as far as being a ring mechanic who can adjust his style to his opponents style, whatever it may be, he is as good as anyone else out there as far as we know. of course not BHop is as sound as they get but what dillweed was driving was that if calderon was so technical then no way should he lose to Segura. I was merely pointing out that sometimes really proficient fighters have issues with less than techinical geniuses hell JMM had issue with Diaz before he got him out of there

are u kidding me?.....Floyd schooled him when they fought....!! has nothing to do with jmm being out of his weight class (too heavy), slow, and too small i'm sure

yet he loses to a basic 1-2 guy like Taylor......TWICE. first fight was a toss up, I had bhop winning. i'm quite sure you're not saying bhop isn't a great technician though regardless, it's be a hard fight to convince me that there is a fighter out there more technically sound than gnop. for the guy who cries with floyd, technically gifted is not a real term. floyd is a great technician, don't shi t on his technique by calling him gifted. he may not be as technically sound as bhop as far as the basics go, but as far as being a ring mechanic who can adjust his style to his opponents style, whatever it may be, he is as good as anyone else out there as far as we know.

I hear him referenced often as the most cerebral and technical fighter in the sport. While I respect and admire JMM, I think Bernard Hopkins has always been better technically (offense and defense) than JMM. In a fantasy styled matchup I envision a prime Bernard taking JMM to school (worse than floyd did). Thoughts? are u kidding me?.....Floyd schooled him when they fought....!!

Because Coach Familton said so, I put down my notebook and focused 100 percent of my attention on the master in the ring, who was now working mitts with Roach. “There’s nice rhythm on his punches,” Familton said. “Did you notice that? Don’t just watch, listen. Bap, bap, bap. Bap, bap, bap. I always listen to the cadence the punches make on the bag or mitts.” Co-trainer John David Jackson, a former world titlist (who Hopkins beat 10 years ago), took over the mitts in order to practice certain moves to execute vs. a southpaw. “Look how quickly he can move in or side to side on a southpaw,” Familton pointed out. Seconds later, Hopkins accidentally nailed Jackson with a left hook. Hopkins is indeed deceptively quick in maneuvering and positioning himself about the ring. I had to keep reminding myself that he’s in his forties. “His legs look good in training,” said Familton. “The only thing you don’t know, at his age, is how his legs are going to look or hold out over 12 rounds if Wright tries to press him.” That’s the only way I can envision a Wright victory. I think the 35-year-old veteran must take the fight to the 42-year-old veteran and simply outwork the older man for three minutes of each round. Wright is usually content to lay back on the outside and work everything off his jab, but the southpaw technician has been known to step up the heat when he needed it as he did in last year’s brisk middleweight clash with young champ Jermain Taylor. Of course, Hopkins, who lost two controversial decisions to Taylor in ’05, points out that the aggressive version of Wright was tagged and tagged often during his disputed draw with the middleweight champ. Hopkins, who is undefeated vs. lefties (a solid list that includes Jackson, Antonio Tarver, Keith Holmes, Carl Daniels, Syd Vanderpool and Joe Lipsey), believes that he will be able to solve the puzzle of Wright’s high-guard defense and piston-like jab. As good as Wright is (and I think he’s one of the top five boxers in the world, pound for pound), it’s hard not to favor Hopkins in Saturday’s fight after watching him exhibit “the basics” at the Wild Card. “I don’t learn anything watching Bernard Hopkins,” Familton said as we left the gym with Schwartz and Husky to grab some lunch. “He just affirms what I’ve learned from the greats 50 and 60 years ago.” I definitely learned something watching Hopkins and listening to Familton this past Monday. Who knows? Maybe 30 or 40 years from now (if I’m lucky enough to still be around and clear headed enough to talk about the past) I might tell some young whippersnapper that watching Hopkins was about as it gets.

You know a fighter is special when everyone in a Southern California boxing gym stops to watch him train, especially if that gym is the Wild Card Boxing Club where at any given hour there might be two or three world titlists and eight or nine top-10 contenders working out under the same roof. Gym rats around these parts are so used to seeing World War III every time two young fighters hop into the ring to spar that they seldom bother to stop and watch a boxer shadow box or just hit mitts, but that’s exactly what happens at Freddie Roach’s gym every time Bernard Hopkins walks out into the crowded floor to go through his preparations for this Saturday’s showdown with Winky Wright. I dropped by the Wild Card around noon this past Monday to observe the 42-year-old ring general’s final day in the crowded Hollywood gym and found that I wasn’t the only curious onlooker. Fellow boxing writers Steve Springer of the L.A. Times, David Avila of the Riverside Press-Enterprise (and thesweetscience.com), and Paul Hernandez who puts out the ‘Punch’ boxing newspaper were there, as were three of the best people I’ve met through boxing, super fans Dave Schwartz and JP Husky and trainer Don Familton. After warming up for half an hour in the private room, Hopkins entered the public part of the gym to do some light rope skipping just as an all-Filipino sparring round robin that included former 115-pound titlist Gerry Penalosa, 115-pound contender Z Gorres, 122-pound contender Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista, Philippines bantie champ Mike “Bruce Lee” Domingo and Czar Amonsot, the giant bleach blonde-haired lightweight who will battle Michael Katsidis on the Hopkins-Wright undercard, was coming to an end. Once Hopkins climbed into the ring, all eyes were on him. “It was beyond observing,” admitted Schwartz, a fight fan since the ‘50s. “We were mesmerized. No one blinked once Bernard started shadowboxing. It was bordering on ‘man-love’; it was almost embarrassing.” No need to be embarrassed. Hopkins’s rags-to-riches story, ring accomplishments and old-school skills make him ‘man-crush’ worthy for many diehard fans around the world. The former undisputed middleweight champ and current recognized light heavyweight champ looked to be around super middleweight size, a weight that appears to suit his body well. His reflexes are sharp, his legs still have plenty of spring in them and his muscles look fuller and healthier than they did for his final bouts at 160 pounds, when his 6-foot frame looked too lean, almost dried out. As I watched Hopkins jab and feint while gliding to one side of the ring and then back, I thought about gym stories from ‘long-timers’ like Schwartz and Familton, two guys who have been following the Sweet Science since before my dad was born. Whenever they brought up watching some of the all-time greats train at long-gone boxing clubs like the old Main Street Gym at 318 S. Main St. they never talked about heated sparring sessions. They marveled at Alexis Arguello’s surgical precision in working the speed bag, or the ferocity of Roberto Duran skipping rope, or the seamless fluidity of Ismael Laguna shadow boxing. I think it was Familton, now 77 years young, who told me about watching Laguna at the Main Street Gym. “That was about as good as it gets,” he said. I wish I could have been there (or someone could have filmed Laguna for prosperity), but I consider myself lucky to able to watch Hopkins work his craft, even at his advanced age. I know I’m watching something special when Schwartz and Familton seem to be in awe. Familton’s father, who saw Benny Leonard fight, was an avid boxing fan and took his son to the fights as soon as he was old enough to know what he was looking at. Familton, who saw Sugar Ray Robinson fight, used to hang out at the Foxhole Gym in Cleveland, Ohio where former light heavyweight/heavyweight contender Jimmy Bivins and former middleweight contender Chuck Hunter used to train. Familton moved to Los Angeles in 1948, and over the next three decades – as a fan and a professional trainer – got to witness some of the best boxers of our time train at various Southern California gyms like the Teamsters Gym (ran by Louie Jauregui; where Armando Muniz trained) at Seventh and Town, the Southwest Gym on Vermont, Ralph Gambino’s in Southgate, Kenny LaSalle’s Gym on Main Street and Ocean Park, and of course THE Main Street Gym. Schwartz and Familton watched awesome lightweights like Laguna, Enrique Bolanos and the great Ike Williams train at the Main Street. “Davey Moore, Harold Johnson, and Joe Fraizer trained there when they were in town,” Familton said. “I saw Hurricane Carter train there. Joe Louis and I once watched Buster Mathis Sr. and his coach Joey Fariello, a really top trainer, train there. That was a thrill.” I got the feeling that Familton and Schwartz got the same thrill watching Hopkins this past Monday afternoon. “It’s all basic fundamentals with Bernard,” he said. “Chin tucked, hands up, elbows in, knees slightly bent, weight distributed properly, stepping on every punch, his head stays inline in-between the legs – there’s no leaning forward or back when he punches or moves about – it’s just the basics.” And Hopkins does it so well. “What a pleasure it is to see a fighter with fundamentals this sound,” said Familton. “There’s no secrets in what he’s doing. You’d think you’d see more of this, but you don’t. “I come into gyms all the time and see a thousand guys working out who don’t do this. “It’s simple, but it isn’t.” The basics seem easy to learn, but they aren’t so easy to teach and instill in a fighter. Even boxers who are able to pick everything up in the gym and apply it in the ring (where it counts) often lose bits and pieces of their technique as time goes on. During the final portions of their amateur careers and the early parts of the pro careers Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas were nearly complete fighters in the ring, exhibiting textbook technique and classic boxing form. However, as their careers progressed, all three Southern Cali. kings of the ring seemed to lose the form that made them special prior to their championship runs. Hopkins, a late bloomer in the ring, was a work in progress for much of the ‘90s. His original trainer Bouie Fisher was an old-school teacher and Hopkins was a good student. While under Fisher’s guidance the ex-con evolved from being “the Executioner”, a tight stalker with a big right hand, to a relaxed tactical boxer who simply executes near-perfect technique. Hopkins had the intelligence to pick up most of Fisher’s teachings and the discipline to hold on to it late in his career. Hopkins may have lost some of the speed and power he possessed in his late 20s and early 30s, but he hasn’t forgotten any of the basic principles he learned during 16 years and 50 pro bouts under Fisher’s watchful eye. “Watch this now, watch!” ‘Coach Familton’ ordered as I drifted off in thought while scribbling in my notebook. “He’s stepping on every punch. I don’t look at his upper body, I look at the feet. He steps with every punch, steps in, and then right back out. In and out; in and out. I love it! “Then he hooks off the jab. Another thing you don’t see done properly anymore. Look how tight his hook is. Everything is close to his body as he delivers it. His arms aren’t way out to his side. Are you watching this, Doug? Look at that, a triple jab! And he steps with each jab. Beautiful! “Oh my God! A feint and hook! Watch this stuff, man, stop writing! Just watch and learn. Watch and learn.”

bhop is a crafty and sneaky fighter but he's not as techically sound as jmm. not true, bernard is as technically sound as any fighter today. he is a robot in training and in the ring, he fouls and uses roughhouse tactics more than jmm, but noone is more technically sound. jmm is on par with bhop. good stuff starts around one minute, but its just a media workout not enough camera work on his feet, but you can see him stepping with his punches so fast you have to know what you're looking for this one's kinda long. start at 43 seconds, picks back up after 2:45

calderon is behind floyd for me--then jmm---then hopkins---floyd is the most technically gifted fighter boxing has ever seen, bar none--