What are some conventional wisdoms in boxing that are just WRONG?

[pesticid]

For example, many boxers, trainers and commentators would say that a right-handed fighter should move to his left against a southpaw to avoid the left hand of the southpaw and people just repeat it as a gospel.

Now let's look at some of the best fighters in the world and how they fight/move against southpaws.

James Toney moving to his right and not to his left when fighting southpaws.
Floyd Mayweather moving to his right and not to his left when fighting southpaws.
Roy Jones Jr. moving to his right and not his left when fighting southpaws.
Bernard Hopkins moving to his right and not to his left when fighting southpaws.

So when guys like Max Kellerman say whoever gets his foot on the outside has better punching position, that's just a hearsay.

Then you have southpaws like Pacquiao and Lara moving to their left when facing conventional fighters and having tremendous success in having their conventional opponents reset every time they want to throw the right hand.

It's like people hear something and they keep repeating as if it actually were true. I have no idea where this originated that when you go to your right as a conventional fighter against southpaw you're more susceptible to left hands when in fact as a southpaw you always have to step over with the lead foot just to get the proper balance to throw the left hand.

Anyway, feel free to agree or disagree and provide more examples of conventional wisdoms that may in fact not be wisdoms.

[Deevel916]

Roy Jones in his prime pretty much ignored all boxing fundamentals and was still able to completely dominate.

[pesticid]

Roy Jones in his prime pretty much ignored all boxing fundamentals and was still able to completely dominate.

How about Floyd Mayweather then, James Toney, Bernard Hopkins, Willie Pep and so on and so forth?

[Deevel916]

How about Floyd Mayweather then, James Toney, Bernard Hopkins, Willie Pep and so on and so forth?

Those are all defensive boxers. Roy's style was completely different.

[pesticid]

Those are all defensive boxers. Roy's style was completely different.

Yeah sure Roy wasn't a defensive fighter haha.
Roy was one of the better defensive fighters of his era. He had power in both hands though and was an amazing tactician. Same with Toney and Pacman.

[Ahmed_Ismail]

Lead foot dominance is a very important thing when fighters of different stances fight each others, the one who land the lead foot on the outside of his opponet's lead foot can shoot his straight punch and get out of the way easily, this is true, Manny Pacquiao always does it, this was Barrera's plan against Hamed and it worked very well, also Marquez did it very well against Pacquiao himself, however it's a very conventional tactic and some fighters don't like to follow convention, this is the difference between a fighter that does the same thing he and everybody always does, and a fighter than can improvise and outsmart his opponent.

The guy I know the best from the guys u mentioned is Floyd, and his secret of success was NOT fighting in rythm and being very versatile, he always did things that are unconventional and considered mistakes by fundamental fighters but he still made them work for himself, when a conventional fighter moves to his right against a southpaw he's open for a straight left hand especially if he mixes up his feet or squares up, which is a terrible mistake, however, if u have experience in covering ur centerline, having ur lead foot on the inside can help u shoot ur jab past the southpaw's lead hand, which Floyd did on several occasions against Pacquiao, but of course u have to know how to cover ur centerline and how to control distance, so that u r not so far in, also moving to the right exposes the southpaw's center line, so if u r quick u can take a very quick small step to the right and shoot ur straight right down the pipe and then dip and slide to the right, like Floyd did against Guerrero for example.

When 2 conventional fighters fight each others, the basics of the jab is to step a bit to the left with it, u do that to expose the center line of ur opponent so that ur right hand can get through his gloves, Floyd does the opposite when fighting a southpaw cuz the stance is the opposite.

All the greats share the same trait, which is the ability to think outside of the box and improvise on the fly to make things work for them, not just overwhelming ur opponents with speed, power and size advantages. That's what makes fighters great.

[Dindu_Nuffin]

That "old school" training methods are better than new school weight-training, resistance, and sports-science methods.

A boxer should do a lot more than simply jog 5 miles, work the different bags, skip rop, and pad work, and spar to prepare for a fight.

Weight-training, sprints, circuit training, and all the legal, over the counter supplements like protein powders, weight-management formulas, etc.